The Next Chapter
by Enromerc
Summary: COMPLETE! A young man leaves his home of Bevelle in search of a much needed adventure after the reign of Sin, but he might have found a lot more than he bargained for. Rated M for Violence
1. A Journey Begins

**Disclaimer: **All aspects of Final Fantasy X belong to Square, not to me. This story has not been made for profit, just for fun! No infringement of rights is intended.

A/N: Hi, and welcome to my first fic. I got the idea for this when I thought, "If there was another FFX character, what would his Celestial Weapon be, and his Overdrive as well." And the ideas exploded into this story. I also got lots of inspiration from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and I used an idea from it, so no infringement intended there either. That series is really good; you should give it a go. Anyway, on with the show. I've written the first 15 chapters of this story, but I'm only putting the first six out there as a taster. There's no point in giving you the whole thing if nobody is reading it. Also, the chapters won't be incredibly long, since I'm simply incapable of pumping out something of length, but never fear, once this story is done I have ideas for two more following it. Please read and review, anything you want to say will be appreciated, and I want to know what everyone reckons I'm doing wrong. Ok, here we go…

**Chapter 1: A Journey Begins**

Everybody has their own story. A story that will intermingle with all other stories, one story influencing another, and that story in turn to influence it, all these stories combine to become the story of Spira. The last chapter of Spira's story ended with the defeat of Sin, but where one chapter ends, another must begin. This is the start of a whole new chapter of Spira's story; this is Corlan's story.

Corlan stood on the shore of the Moonflow, staring into his reflection. He was looking into a 15-year-old face, with long brown hair and dark eyes, the sunset casting an orange glow across his face. Many would have said that Corlan looked very determined just then, but what he really felt was stubbornly eager to get to his destination. Corlan was thinking of why he had run away from his home in Bevelle. The thought of running away had come to him not long after High Summoner Yuna had defeated Sin and brought the Eternal Calm. Corlan had spent his first years in Besaid, where he was born. His parents had come into some gil and decided to move to the big city, Bevelle. After the start of the Eternal Calm, Corlan realised that of the whole of Spira, the only part he had seen was the inside of his bedroom. He had been convinced that as soon as he left his house, Sin would rear up and annihilate Bevelle. He had had the very irrational feeling that he was somehow safe as long as he was within the walls of his home. After Sin's defeat, Corlan decided that he needed to see more of Spira, and thought that Besaid was as good a place as any to go and see. In fact it was better since he had been born there. 

Corlan picked up his sword from its resting-place, and strapped it onto his back. The Soul Reaver was a very good sword, maybe one of the best in Spira. It could deal high damage, both to health and to magic power. It could pierce the hardest of fiends armour and gave Corlan the ability to dodge fiend's attacks and strike back. The Soul Reaver had been very useful to Corlan as he travelled alone through Macalania Woods and the Thunder Plains.

Corlan had not used the blade in a long time. It was a family heirloom, given to Corlan on his 7th birthday by his father, Jarith. Jarith had had just enough time to teach Corlan how to use the blade before he was called to fight for the Crusaders and died fighting a Sinspawn.

Thinking about his father's death did not affect him now; he had a long time to get over it. However sometimes when he thought of his father's death he felt incredibly bitter about it. For a few brief moments, Corlan would be engulfed with an immense rage, and the need to blame someone for his father's death; the Crusaders, Yevon, Sin, anybody. For those brief seconds, all Corlan wanted to do was reach out and strangle the shrouded figure that came into his vision, the shroud that was responsible for his father's death. And then, just like that, Corlan snapped out of his emotional trance, and those few moments of his life were immediately forgotten.

After strapping on his sword, Corlan inspected his clothes to see if they may need repair. Corlan definitely couldn't sew, but if he had to he would try. He was wearing semi blitzball-style clothes, which were mainly in dark blue and white, with a little bit of yellow worked in. After inspecting his clothes, Corlan concluded that the biggest problem with them was that they were quite dirty, to the point where the white on his shirt was virtually brown.

Corlan realised that this was the largest amount of water he would be near for a while, so he took the opportunity to wash his clothes in the Moonflow. After he was satisfied that his clothes were clean he put them back on, thankful that nobody had been around to see him in his underwear while he was washing his clothes.

Water dripping off his clothes, and making the material cling to his skin, Corlan walked into the shoopuf station and went in search of the item's dealer. His stock of potions had gone down considerably since his stop off at the Thunder Plains Travel Agency. Corlan had left his home with little over 200 gil and a few potions in his pocket. It was quite a good thing that the fiends kept dropping gil and items or else he would have been dead long ago. Corlan had always wondered why fiends dropped items and gil. Where did the stuff come from in the first place? He guessed that it was a mystery for another day.

After stocking up on healing items, Corlan made his way to the Hypello who ran the shoopuf station.

"Ride ze shoopuf?"

"Yeah thanks." Replied Corlan, handing over his coins for the trip.

Corlan boarded the shoopuf with excitement. This was one of things Corlan was looking forward to since he had left Bevelle. Riding a shoopuf across the Moonflow. As the shoopuf crossed the Moonflow, Corlan gazed around him in awe. He had never seen so many pyreflies in one place before. The sun was setting casting an orange glow over the water, and the slow swaying of the shoopuf was adding to the feeling of beauty and serenity. Corlan gazed down into the water and saw something that he had forgotten about; the sunken city at the bottom of the Moonflow. Corlan could not ever imagine a city as large as the one he was seeing now, but the city of Zanarkand, as it had been before it was destroyed by Sin, must have been at least as big.

The thought of Zanarkand triggered many other thoughts about Spira's history. Corlan was lost in thought when the motion of the shoopuf stopped and he realised that he must be at the other side already. He hopped off the shoopuf and walked down the road for a while until he found a good place to set up camp. He laid out his sleeping bag, built a small fire, and then began to prepare his meal. The meal was quite satisfying after a long day on the road, and soon after Corlan was finished eating he was snug inside his sleeping bag, and thinking of what tomorrow would bring before drifting off to sleep.


	2. When Fiends Attack

**Chapter 2: When Fiends Attack**

Corlan awoke and several things occurred to him. His campsite was completely encircled by fiends, he needed his weapon, and he had to leave all of his things behind. He was instantly out of his sleeping bag and holding the Soul Reaver. If he tried to fight off all of the fiends in this enclosed space in the woods he would never survive. There must have been 10 or 20 fiends gathered around him, and they all seemed to wait for him to make the first move. This was definitely odd behaviour for fiends.

There was only one way out of the campsite and a dingo fiend was guarding it. Corlan leapt into action, sensing that all of the other fiends were right on his heels. With one mighty swing Corlan dispatched of the one fiend blocking his way to the road. As soon as Corlan reached the road he turned, and narrowly dodged a fiend that had leapt out after him. With his Counterattack ability he sliced the fiend and it burst into pyreflies. From then on it was easy going for Corlan. The gap in the trees was narrow, and so only one fiend could follow Corlan out at a time. He stood at the front of the gap and chopped down the fiends as they came out of the campsite.

Corlan returned to his campsite and picked up the gil and items that the fiends had dropped as he went. He used one of the Potions to rejuvenate himself and then collected his belongings. As Corlan made his way towards the Djose highroad, he wondered how one person could take on that many fiends and live to tell the tale. Sure, he was a decent swordsman if he said so himself and the fiends were getting steadily easier as he progressed further and further from Bevelle but…

_It must just be the adrenaline,_ Corlan thought to himself. _People always think smart during battle._

Corlan continued on the path and came out onto the Djose Highroad to see something he had never expected. More fiends than he could count, as far as the eye could see, with not a soul on the highroad but himself.

_Whoa,_ thought Corlan. _Maybe if I just ignore them then they will ignore me?_

He could not have thought something more false. Corlan had made it less than 10 metres down the highroad, with his eyes cast upwards to avoid eye contact, before the fiends attacked. He was swarmed with fiends on all sides, so many that a comparison to how many had been at his campsite was impossible. Even before Corlan had a chance to think of any way to escape, he found himself fighting for his life, fighting with all he had.

He was constantly dodging the fiends' lunging attacks and swatting them out of the air behind him with his Counterattack. However there were just too many to guard against at once, and Corlan was constantly being bit, stung, and slashed from behind and his sides. Corlan was constantly drinking potions as he fought, trying desperately not to fall into a critical state of health.

The onslaught continued, and Corlan found that he had almost completely exhausted his stock of healing items, having only 3 potions left. He had to finish this battle before his time ran out. It was at that critical moment in the battle when Corlan remembered that he had charged up his Overdrive back in Macalania, to keep for a rainy day. He had become so used to the extra energy in his body that he had forgotten about it. But Corlan couldn't use his Overdrive yet. He had to wait for the perfect moment.

Corlan drunk his last potion with regret, hoping beyond hope that the perfect moment would arise. A dragon fiend shot a fireball at Corlan and reduced him to near death. The fiends seemed to sense his critical state and formed a circle around him, preparing to administer the final blow.

A single wolf fiend raised his muzzle and howled, and as one the fiends leapt into the air towards him. Time seemed to slow down as the fiends flew through the air, and Corlan's eyes flashed as he spotted exactly the moment he had been waiting for.

"Overdrive! Soul Raid!"

Through some process he did not understand, he pushed that extra energy out of his body, through his hand, and into the Soul Reaver. The blade glowed briefly. An invisible ripple of energy emanated from Corlan, stirring the dust on the highroad as it passed. Corlan felt that time was still moving slowly, but in fact the fiends were frozen in mid pounce. All at once an intensely bright white light shot out of each fiend and flew into Corlan, bringing with it the fiends' remaining life and magic force. The air around him burst into a swarm of pyreflies.

Corlan felt rejuvenated by the fiends' energy as he went around the area to pick up all of the items left behind by the fiends.

Unbeknownst to Corlan, there was a cloaked figure shrouded in the shadows of the Djose Highroad.

"So, you have passed my test then, Corlan." The figure laughed, a soft laugh. "It seems that the time has almost come for my plan to come into action"


	3. Arriving in Besaid

**Chapter 3: Arriving in Besaid**

The rest of Corlan's journey to Besaid was not nearly as eventful as that one day on the Djose Highroad. The travel down the long and torturous Mi'ihen Highroad was marked only with a few small fiend battles, nothing Corlan couldn't handle. He hadn't even needed to stop at the travel agency, since his pouch was near to overflowing with healing items from the battle on Djose Highroad.

The next stop for Corlan was Luca, where the hype for the upcoming blitzball tournament was huge. He stayed in a small hotel while in Luca, and he doubted that he had gotten any sleep with everybody partying in the streets and generally making a racket, all virtually outside his window, because they were just so excited about this tournament. It was, after all, the first blitzball tournament since the start of the Eternal Calm.

Corlan left his hotel in the early hours of the morning and headed straight for the docks in hopes of getting away from this incredibly noisy city. Luckily the S.S. Winno was already docked and it left for Kilika soon after Corlan boarded.

He got off the S.S. Winno and took in his surroundings. Corlan had heard that Kilika had been completely destroyed by Sin, but after more than a year it looked like it had finally been rebuilt. Kilika looked far more civilised and prosperous than Corlan had been led to believe, but then again the rebuilding of the whole town probably brought about this state of prosperity. Corlan wandered around the town like a tourist for a while before he boarded the S.S. Liki to Besaid.

After boarding the ship Corlan looked around for a while and realised that the S.S. Liki was exactly the same as the S.S. Winno.

Someone_ has a good imagination._ Corlan thought to himself.

He also came to realise that he was the only passenger on the boat. People must have been going towards Luca for the tournament, not away from it.

Besaid came into view and Corlan's spirits rose the closer the ship got to it. He was finally arriving where he had set out to go in the beginning. The S.S. Liki docked at Besaid, but before Corlan could get off, and quite a few others could get on, several ropes had to be tied around posts, and the gangplank had to be lowered. The crew did this as if they had done it their whole lives.

Corlan had to concentrate heavily on leaving the ship; since the plank was wobbling about so much as he tried to cross it. Just as Corlan was able to concentrate on something other than the piece of wood, he raised his eyes to see a blitzball fly past his head. Corlan immediately whipped around and snagged the ball out of the air before it flew too far away. Corlan was amazed at the catch he had just performed.

_Must be that adrenaline again,_ He thought.

"Hey thanks for catching the ball, man," Came a voice from behind Corlan. "That was a good catch, ya. You ever play blitzball?"

Corlan turned around to hand the man's ball back, and the man said. "Whoa, you look a lot like…. Never mind. So you ever play blitzball?"

"Yeh, I've played a little before, but blitzball isn't that big in Bevelle." Said Corlan, ignoring his remark and handing back the ball.

"Ah, from Bevelle are you? They aren't big on blitz at all, ya. The biggest city in all of Spira, and not even one blitzball team. What a waste."

Corlan laughed. " I'm not actually from Bevelle. I was born here in Besaid and me and my parents moved to Bevelle when I was little."

"Hmm," said the man, scratching his chin and looking towards the sky, as if he was trying to find some piece of information stored right at the back of his mind. "Moved out when you were little you say? Not many people move out of Besaid, ya."

The man continued to scratch his chin and then all of a sudden stuck his finger into the air. "I got it!" He proclaimed, "You must be Corlan, ya? Son of Jarith? You look a lot like him too now that I think of it. By the way I'm Wakka, captain of the Besaid Aurochs." Said Wakka, offering Corlan his hand for a handshake.

"Wakka? _Sir_ Wakka?" Said Corlan in confusion.

Of course Sir Wakka was here in Besaid. This was his and Lady Yuna's hometown. It had always seemed so odd to Corlan that someone as important as High Summoner Yuna could have come from the quaint village of Besaid. Although it was not so quaint now. Every town, village and city in Spira had had to accommodate for the quickly growing population in the months after Sin's defeat.

"Yeah, _Sir _Wakka." The famous guardian replied with exasperation.

"Wow" Corlan said, clearly dumbfounded by meeting this celebrity.

"So, errrr, ya." Said Wakka, feeling embarrassed by Corlan's show of awe. "About the blitzball. You play any position?"

"What? Oh." Corlan said, recovering from his bout of admiration. "I always thought of myself as a shooter but I can be a pretty good goalie if I have to."

"A goalie you say?" Wakka replied conspiratorially. "Well don't tell anyone that I said this, but Keepa's getting unfit, ya? He just let loose. I don't think he'll be good to play in the tournament, ya know. Can I count on you to take his place if I think he's no good?"

"Yeah sure, I always wanted to play in a blitzball tournament. I just never thought that I would be playing for my home town."


	4. Quaint Little Village

**Chapter 4: Quaint Little Village**

Corlan spent the rest of the day training with the Aurochs. He realised that it had been a long time since he had done anything blitz-related. His skills were really poor. However he could say the same about the rest of the Aurochs. It was a wonder that they had been able to defeat the Luca Goers to in the blitz tournament last year. Corlan had seen the match on the sphere. The Aurochs had had a strange player that year. That player was the reason the Aurochs had won. Wakka was a good player too, but that strange guy, he was amazing. But Corlan hadn't seen the mysterious player during the entire afternoon of training, and didn't have the confidence to ask any of the Aurochs about him.

"That's the end of training boys! Head back to camp!" Shouted Wakka, sounding quite like a general ordering his troops. The Aurochs immediately started jogging back to the village, and Keepa was already quite far behind the rest, huffing and puffing like he had just run a mile.

"Geez, that Keepa will never get fit, ya?" Said Wakka in semi-disgust. "You trained well today, Corlan. Looks like your chances of playing in the tournament just went up. Anyway, you haven't seen Besaid yet have you Corlan? C'mon, I'll show you the way to the village and give you the grand tour. You can have dinner at my place."

"Ok then" Corlan replied to everything Wakka had just said.

Corlan and Wakka walked along the path to the village, talking about blitz and completely annihilating any fiends that interrupted their conversation. Corlan couldn't believe how easy the fiends were in this place. They continued to walk on the generally curvy path until they rounded a corner. Corlan's breath caught. He couldn't move, he was so enraptured by the beauty. In front of him, waterfalls cascaded over the cliff above, and descended into the deep below. The sun was just beginning to set, and at the exact angle it was at, it sent light shimmering through the waterfall. This had to be one of the beauties of Spira, along with the Moonflow and the Macalania Woods.

"Beautiful, eh?" Said Wakka, having had to stop and walk back to Corlan after realising he had been talking to thin air for the past minute or two. "But I've walked this path so many times that I'm used to it, ya?"

"Yeah, some people think Bevelle is pretty but to me it's just an ordinary city." Corlan replied.

This conversation had nowhere to go, but the companions did, and so Corlan and Wakka proceeded down the slope and stopped at the entrance to the village.

"Time for the grand tour." Wakka said with pride. "That hut there on your left is the items shop, and the tent further down on the left is the old Crusader's hut. That's probably where you'll be staying. The four huts on the right and that one furthest away from us on the left are all houses. The second on the right is mine. And you see the big building back there? That's Besaid Temple."

It didn't take long for Corlan's eyes to absorb the rest of the village, however, they hovered for several minutes over the temple. The temple looked quite elegant and pretty when compared to the rest of the village, but it exuded a sense of formality and gloom. This was where Summoners came to get their first Aeon. The start of their pilgrimage, the first step towards their death. It made sense that this place was gloomy.

The gloom of the temple started to seep into Corlan until he had to laugh. He had been expecting a tour but he had only needed to stand in the one spot to take in the entire village. He supposed that if they had actually gone on a tour it just would have been stupid; he could already see everything there was to see anyway. Corlan looked around at the people of the village. They looked happy; the children were playing, and the adults were laughing together. This was exactly how Corlan had pictured Besaid to be, just a quaint little village compared to Bevelle.

"C'mon let's have some dinner, ya?" Said Wakka anxiously. "I'm starved after all that blitz training!"

Wakka ran into his hut eagerly, while Corlan spent a few more minutes taking in the village he had been so determined to see. He must have been standing outside for longer than he thought, because when he finally entered Wakka's hut there was more food than he had ever seen before lain out on the table. He sat down quickly and began eating, since Wakka was already quite preoccupied with his own food.

Wakka leaned back in his seat after finishing his meal with a look of satisfaction on his face, "That hit the spot!"

Corlan laughed. Wakka had definitely eaten more than his fair share of the food, and Corlan didn't complain, because, even though he was a big eater himself, he had eaten more than enough to satisfy himself. If Corlan was a big eater, then Wakka was an _enormous _eater. Corlan left Wakka's hut soon after eating and went straight across the village and into the old Crusader's tent. Big meals always made Corlan incredibly sleepy. Most of the beds were taken up by the Aurochs, but he found himself a bed and lay down on it. It had been a while since he had slept on a proper bed. The combination of the long journey he had taken, along with the blitzball training, the huge meal, and the incredibly comfortable bed beneath him, made him immediately drowsy. It almost felt like Corlan was back in his home as he drifted off to sleep


	5. A Summons

**Chapter 5: A Summons**

Corlan emerged from his tent after having the best sleep he'd had in a while. That bed was so much more comfortable than the ground he had been sleeping on during his journey.

As he left the tent the sun temporarily blinded him, and sent him staggering, blinking, and waving his arms around to make sure he didn't bump into anything. After Corlan's vision came back to him, he looked up to find what must have been the entire village staring at him.

_I must have looked like a complete fool just then. _ He thought to himself as the crowd stared at him.

His moment in the spotlight was short-lived, however, as a woman came bursting out of the temple, drawing all eyes to her. The woman came rushing into the village with a deep look of concern on her face. As she drew closer, Corlan realised that this woman was none other than the High Summoner Yuna.

Her eyes brushed over Corlan briefly and then immediately snapped back. She let out an elated squeal and the look of worry instantly vanished from her face. She ran towards Corlan, the happiest woman in all of Spira, as Corlan stood stock-still, totally dumbstruck.

"Tid…?" Yuna said, slowing down as she got nearer. A look of extreme disappointment came across her face then, and she said, "Oh, you're not him… look, just get Wakka and the others and meet me at the Chamber of the Fayth."

With that, she turned around and ran off in the direction of the temple. Corlan stared after her for a few minutes, totally confused about what had just happened, before what she had said registered on him. Corlan slowly walked to Wakka's tent.

"Hey Wakka, you awake?" Corlan shouted from the doorway.

"Ugh… Whaddya want? It is _way _too early!" Came a grunt from the general direction of the bed.

"I think I just saw Lady Yuna. She said to get you and the others, whoever they are, and meet her at the Chamber of the Fayth. She looked really worried."

Wakka was up and about before Corlan had finished.

"OK, I'm ready, now let's go get Lu and Rikku" Said Wakka.

"Lady Lulu and Lady Rikku? They're 'the others'?"

"Yes, yes" Said Wakka in exasperation. "The _Ladies_. Now get out of your trance and let's go!"

Corlan felt like an idiot. If Lady Yuna and Sir Wakka were here in Besaid, then why wouldn't the Lady Lulu and Lady Rikku also be here? Corlan made a pact with himself not to get too googoo-eyed at them, seeing as they were celebrities. When the time came, he thought he carried it off pretty well, but it was hard not to stare at two of the best-looking women he had ever seen. He found it particularly hard not to stare at the person who must be Lady Lulu, especially with her showing off her cleavage like that. Corlan supposed that Lady Yuna must have been pretty as well but he hadn't really had a chance to look at her in all of his confusion. Lady Lulu gave Corlan a knowing look, which gave him the chills looking into those red eyes, and which he was quite sure he knew the meaning of. Corlan blushed a little, but then realised that he was just a 15-year-old boy. It was normal for him to stare, right?

The Lady Rikku gave off a totally different energy than the Lady Lulu, who had successfully frozen him much better than any Ice Flan could do. The energy that Lady Rikku gave off was one of happiness, exuberance, and… energy. Her clothing was a _lot_ more ordinary than Lady Lulu's, and although she didn't have Lady Lulu's almost raw beauty, she was still someone he would look twice at any day.

"Lu. Rikku. Corlan here just said that Yuna burst out of the temple and told him to get us and meet her in the temple. He says she looked really worried. C'mon lets see what's up, ya?"

"Okie doke. I just hope Yunie is OK." Said Lady Rikku, and with that the four of them were off.

It didn't take long for Corlan to stop thinking of Rikku as Lady Rikku. She could not have been more than a year older than himself, and the way that she acted as if she had eaten way too much sugar, nobody would ever think of her as mature enough to be any kind of Lady. Rikku's playful energy heightened Corlan's mood as the group of four came ever closer to Besaid Temple, and whatever it was inside the temple that had Lady Yuna so worried.


	6. Prophecy

A/N: The following chapter has a reference to the Forgotten Aeon. I am aware that there is a fic on with the same title, however I have not stolen the idea. In fact, I thought of the Forgotten Aeon long before finding out that there was a fic with the same name. I have never even read this fic, and any similarities between that story and mine are purely coincidental.

**Chapter 6: Prophecy**

Wakka completed the Cloister of Trials with the expertise of someone who had completed them many times before. The door to the Chamber of the Fayth was open as the group reached the end of the Trials. Inside they could see Yuna with her back facing them.

"Look" She said, without turning around.

Over a glass dome in the floor was hovering a human-like figure, it's features cloaked in darkness.

"Ah, you have all arrived I see." Said the figure, with an indifferent voice.

Corlan did not know how this thing could have been expecting him to be there since this was his first time in Besaid, but he decided not to think on it too much.

"I have something to tell you all," Continued the figure, "We Fayth were given a message long ago." So this thing was a Fayth. "We do not know by whom, possibly the creator of Spira. We were given this message to repeat when the time was right. Now is that time. Here is the message in its entirety:

"'Evil and Death shall be born again,

Death reborn at the place of death,

Evil reborn on the day evil prevails,

And Death has done as pyreflies do.

"And when Evil and Death share bodies,

The Devil that results cannot be destroyed,

Except when The Forgotten Aeon,

And the Weapons of the Planets combine.

"But if The Wielders fail,

Then Evil will be reborn every day,

And Death will be reborn everywhere.'

"I'm sorry I cannot give you more, but know this. We Fayth cannot rest while Spira is threatened so. Have faith in us again, Lady Yuna." And with that the Fayth faded away.

"Wow!" Said Rikku. "Hey, anybody remember the whole thing?"

"Yes," Lulu said, hand held to her forehead in exasperation. "It's obviously some kind of riddle. I'll right it all down when we get back to the village."

So the group proceeded to Wakka's tent, where Lulu wrote down the riddle, while the others took places at various points around the tent.

"Well first we need to figure out just who or what Evil and Death are. It might even be the same person. From this 'prophecy' it's easy to tell that whatever is happening, Spira is in great danger, and 'Evil and Death' are at the root of it" Said Yuna from a chair next to Wakka's bed.

"Evil and Death," Said Lulu, from her position by the door, deep in thought. "Who represents Evil and Death more than Sin?"

"Hmm, I think we woulda heard about it if a giant sea monster was back from the dead, ya?" Retorted Wakka from his bed, his voice thick with sarcasm. "It can't be Sin."

"But then who?" Asked Rikku, from her spot on top of a drawer.

"Well that's just it." Said Yuna, " The Fayth said that Evil and Death would be reborn. It didn't say that it had already happened. For all we know it could be Sin. For all we know it could be anything else though."

Lulu decided to change the subject, seeing that the discussion about who, or what, Evil and Death were was getting nowhere. "Well when's the day that evil prevails? If the day that evil prevails is far off then we have lots of time to sort all of this out."

"The day evil prevails is the anniversary of when Sin first appeared. That was about 3 or 4 days ago." Answered Yuna.

"Well that means that they've either been reborn already, or we have almost a year to think this thing through." Said Wakka.

"3 or 4 days ago? That's when I got attacked by fiends. More than I could count. They filled the Djose Highroad as far as I could see. I doubt it's a coincidence." Said Corlan from where he was leaning against the wall opposite Rikku. As soon as he spoke all eyes turned to him. It seemed that in their deep thoughts, the others had completely forgotten that he was in the room. After a while, they went back to their thoughts, but not before Corlan was covered in a light sweat from the apparent glares the others were giving to him.

"No definitely not a coincidence." Said Yuna in a grim tone. " It seems that whatever Evil and Death are, they are already reborn. It's not possible to be attacked by so many fiends and not have some incredible evil behind it. –"

"Hey!" Rikku interrupted. "The Weapons of the Planets! The Celestial Weapons! That mean's we're the bearers or the wielders or whatever. We have to stop these guys!"

"That cannot be. Caladbolg faded when…" Lulu cut off with a glance at Yuna.

"You are forgetting. Weapons of the _Planets_. Nirvana and Caladbolg needed Moon and Sun crests and sigils. They are not needed. Not to mention that the Fayth gave the message to _us_. What would have been the point of giving this prophecy to people it didn't concern." Said Yuna.

"But then what about Masamune?" Asked Wakka.

"We'll just have to ask Auron about it." Responded Yuna. "We'll be going by the Farplane anyway."

"What do you mean, Yunie?" Said Rikku.

"I mean that last thing the Fayth said. 'Have faith in us again'. I think it meat that I can summon the Aeons again. How else can we use The Forgotten Aeon?" Replied Yuna.

"Another pilgrimage?" Asked Rikku.

"It looks like it." Replied Yuna.

"Looks like we have some packing to do, ya? Let's just forget about this thing for now, eh? C'mon we'll get packed and then rest up for the pilgrimage."

A/N: That's it for now, just a bit of a taste. I currently have 15 chapters written but I won't be posting those until somebody actually wants to see them :) Please tell me what you thought of the story so far, anything you think needs improving or anything that you liked. Anything! Thanks for reading. Please tell me what you think

Enro


	7. A Summoner Again

A/N: Hello again. I was hoping for a bit more than _one_ review over the amount of time this fic has been up, but what can you do? I'm hoping that the next few chapters I'm posting will give those of you who aren't reviewing (that's right, I know more than _one_ person has read my story so far) something to review about. _Somebody_ please read and review and tell me what you think of the story, even if you think it's horrible. OK enough of me, here are the next few chapters…

**Chapter 7: A Summoner Again**

Corlan spent a while meandering around the fire in the village, thinking over what the Fayth had said. Wakka interrupted his thoughts by poking his head out of the tent and yelling, "Why aren't you getting ready?"

"Why should I? I'm not going."

"Oh yes you are!" Retorted Wakka. "You're as much a part of this as the rest of us. The Fayth was expecting you remember?"

Corlan nodded his head grudgingly but in agreement and stalked off to his tent to pack up his things.

After Corlan packed his things he decided to go sit by the fire again, since he was not yet tired enough to sleep. Before long Yuna joined him. She smiled at him and Corlan found his first chance to really look at her. She was definitely better looking than Rikku or Lulu.

"I don't believe we have been formally introduced. I'm Yuna"

"It's nice to formally meet you Lady Yuna." Said Corlan mockingly. "My name is Corlan."

"Well Corlan, I'm looking forward to journeying with you." She paused. "Umm, about what happened this morning. I'm sorry I confused you like that. I could see it on your face. It's just… you look so much like him."

"Who is this 'him'?" Asked Corlan. "Ever since I got to Besaid I've been hearing that I look like _someone _but I have no idea who it is."

Yuna turned her head to the sky and looked longingly, for what seemed an eternity, before finally responding. " _He_ was Tidus. Oh, Tidus. I never truly understood his story. He's gone… He isn't even in the Farplane, and believe me I checked. He was Sir Jecht's son, and a great blitzball player, and my guardian, and….. everything. He was everything to me in that world full of death. And now? Gone forever…."

Corlan looked into Yuna's eyes and saw the anguish and unshed tears that must have come to her every time she thought of this Tidus. "I'm sorry to have made you bring back those memories of him. Please don't think on it any more."

They both sat, totally silent, staring into the fire until Corlan became lost in his thoughts again. Then a thought came to Corlan. "Hey you know fiends? You know how they drop items and gil. Why is that? It doesn't really make much sense."

Yuna laughed. When she responded, almost all of the grief from before was gone from her voice.

Almost.

"That question has troubled many. Nobody knows for sure but I have a theory. I think that those are the items that the lost souls were carrying before they died. When they become fiends they still hold them somewhere, and when they die they are dropped."

"That makes sense." Replied Corlan.

The two of them continued to chat light-heartedly until Corlan let out a huge yawn, which was soon echoed by Yuna, and which was then echoed by him again. They said their good-byes and good nights and went to their beds.

When Corlan awoke, he gathered his belongings before leaving the tent to find all of Yuna's guardians in the centre of the village.

"Where's Yuna" He asked.

"She's in the temple, getting her first Aeon… again." Replied Rikku.

Corlan thought he should get to know his future travelling companions better, but before he could start, Wakka started for him. "Hey Lu, you know that Corlan is the son of Jarith and Celeste. You remember them, they left Besaid for Bevelle about 12 years ago."

"Oh really!" Said Lulu. " How are Jarith and Celeste?"

At the mention of his father's name, Corlan's blood began to boil. Unchecked rage coursed through his veins. Fury beyond imagination engulfed his soul and being. Untold anger pierced his mind, pierced every nerve in his body, until he wanted to howl with the pain. For those few moments Corlan _was_ pain and fury, turning him into a murderous madman intent on killing those responsible for his father's death. _Crusaders! Burn! Die, Crusaders, die, die DIE!_ And with that it was over. The rage passed and Corlan blinked in surprise. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, how are Jarith and Celeste" Lulu said in a tone used for speaking to those with hearing impediments.

"Jarith is dead. He died fighting for the Crusaders. He died fighting a Sinspawn." Corlan said with indifference. He had mourned and gotten over his father's death. There was no need to fawn over one death when everybody died by the hands of Sin.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Replied Lulu. "Jarith was a good man"

"Well no need to think about the past, ya?" Wakka said, seeming quite disturbed by what Corlan had said, or more, the way Corlan had said it. That combined with the flash he could've sworn he saw in Corlan's eyes had thrown him a little off balance

"Yes no need." Said Corlan. "So, I know all about Wakka but I don't know anything about you ladies. Why don't you tell me about yourselves?"

"Well, I'm an Al Bhed, my dad is Cid and my brother is called… Brother…"

The rest of the time taken to wait for Yuna was filled with Rikku and Lulu exchanging information with Corlan about their lives and themselves. They both managed to stay away from the subject of Jarith, although Rikku didn't do it too tactfully. Eventually the conversation degenerated into Rikku telling stories of her exploits, which only Corlan listened to since Lulu had heard them all already. Corlan spent a lot of time laughing.

Corlan thought that it would get dark before Yuna came out, and, as if thinking of her was a summons, she finally came out of the temple. She ran up to the group and hugged everyone in a manner that Corlan didn't think she was capable of. She looked so incredibly happy, and Corlan was forced to think of the look in her eyes when she was talking about Tidus last night. The contrast between then and now was almost mind-boggling.

"I'm so happy!" She yelled. "I have an Aeon again! Let me show him to you! Valefor! Come forth!"

As she said those words, she did a dance with her staff, and then, it seemed to Corlan that something was falling out of the sky. The thing opened up, and swooped down by Yuna's side.

"Isn't it beautiful!"

_No._ He thought. The beast was the exact opposite of beautiful, but Corlan could tell this Aeon made her very happy, maybe happy enough to forget her troubles. So he smiled and nodded and Yuna laughed.

"C'mon, if we hurry we can make it to Kilika by nightfall." Said Yuna, full of excitement.


	8. Eternal Calm No More

**Chapter 8: Eternal Calm No More**

Corlan spent most of the trip on the S.S. Liki with the Aurochs, practicing his blitzball. By now he had regained his former skill, and he had to be better than all of the Aurochs. And he was a rookie! It really was a wonder that the Aurochs had won last year. But then again, the Aurochs had had that mysterious player on their team. Then it dawned on Corlan. That mysterious player had to be Tidus. Corlan had that nice feeling that a person has when they slot a few pieces of a puzzle together, however small the puzzle might be.

While Corlan was practicing his signature shot, Lulu interrupted him, "Hey, why don't you stop playing blitzball for a while and come here."

Corlan thought, _Why not_, and went over to where Lulu was, on the top deck.

"I want to teach you some magic," Lulu explained.

"That would be cool." Replied Corlan

Corlan spent some time doing silly things like emptying his mind of thought and other strange little exercises. _What's the point of this? _thought Corlan. Then Lulu had him open his palm and concentrate heavily on heat. He was already hot and sweaty from his blitzball practice, and had become hotter through all of the concentrating exercises Lulu had him do, so he closed his eyes and sort of channelled the heat in his body to a point on his palm. When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see a ball of flame hovering over his palm.

"Good, good" Said Lulu, "Now all you have to do is say 'Fire' and the spell should work. You can aim it at me, I don't mind."

Corlan did as instructed, and to his amazement, an explosion of fire burst beneath Lulu. She quickly cast a water spell at herself to put out the fire.

Corlan soon found that he could cast all of the basic elemental spells, in the same manner as he had done the Fire spell, and Lulu said he would probably be able to cast Cure as well, but she also said that that was the limit of his abilities. Corlan couldn't complain though, since many people could not cast magic at all. Corlan realised that Lulu must have total control of her emotions and body in order to cast all the Black Magic that she knew. _I wonder how she casts her poison spell?_ He thought, _and the 'Ice Queen's' Blizzard spell must be awesome._

He decided to find Yuna, to see if she could teach him Cure. After all anything he could learn was to his advantage.

"Yuna," He said, after finally finding her below decks, "I've been learning magic with Lulu," he said, demonstrating by producing a ball of fire in his palm. "And she said I would be able to learn Cure. I was wondering if you could teach me."

"Sure thing Corlan" Yuna said with a smile.

Yuna tried to make him do similar mind exercises as Lulu had made him do, but they skipped ahead as soon as Yuna found out that Corlan was already familiar with it. The casting of Cure was quite similar to that of Black Magic, except instead of drawing on heat or water or coldness or energy, Corlan had to draw energy straight from his heart.

"Ok now say the word 'Cure' and aim it at yourself. You look a bit tired." Instructed Yuna.

"Cure!"

A bright white-green light suffused Corlan, and he felt the rigors of the day being washed away. Corlan didn't notice, and nor did Yuna, but at the very centre of that white-green light there was a tiny speck amongst the incredibly bright light, darker than the night itself.

"That's really good, Corlan! But I don't think you'll be getting any further." Said Yuna with a smile. Yuna should have smiled like that more often. It seemed to work on Corlan like a miniature Cure spell. Yuna's constant gloominess had seemed to seep into Corlan as soon as he entered her presence. Her smile took away the gloom, if only for a while.

Corlan smiled, but the a look of seriousness entered his face, "Lady Yuna, have you figured out any more of that prophecy the Fayth told?"

Yuna's face instantly turned grim, "Yeh, I wasn't able to sleep that much, so I was just poring over that prophecy last night. I was thinking about 'Death has done as pyreflies do'. That makes it sound like Evil hasn't done it. I think that means that Evil and Death are two different things. And then I thought, 'What do pyreflies do?' Then I remembered what an old historian named Maechen once told me. He said that pyreflies are responsible for spheres. And a sphere has a memory implanted on it, right? And this memory is implanted on the sphere with the help of the pyreflies. So what pyreflies do is implant memories of people onto spheres. So that's what Death must have done, implanted his memory, his soul onto something else. And I'm thinking he implanted it on a person."

"So what you're saying is, that someone is walking around with the spirit of Death inside them?"

"That's the gist of it. But don't worry yourself over it; we'll get to it when we do. C'mon I think we just arrived in Kilika."

Upon their arrival in Kilika, they decided it was too late for Yuna to go into the temple, so they got some rooms in the Travel Agency.

Corlan's dreams that night were filled with a faceless man, Death reincarnated, chasing him with blood-red eyes flashing, and also of a man, cloaked in darkness, plotting something terribly evil.

Corlan woke in a cold sweat, and a realisation came to him. He didn't know how this realisation had come to him, but it had.

The last thing the Fayth had said. "But if The Wielders fail, Then Evil will be reborn every day, And Death will be reborn everywhere." It had to be a metaphor. It meant that if Yuna and her guardians failed, evil would prevail every day, and Spira would become a place of death.

Corlan immediately told his travelling companions of his shocking revelation. Nobody seemed surprised.

"So much for the Eternal Calm." Said Wakka.


	9. Thoughts in Kilika Temple

**Chapter 9: Thoughts in Kilika Temple**

The mood of the party was quite diminished and gloomy as they made their way through Kilika woods. The fiends in the woods were quite weak, but most of the party were out of practice. The bug fiends were particularly pesky. They kept poisoning members of the party and putting them to sleep while they weren't looking. Yuna was throwing Esuna's around, front and back. Wakka and Lulu were taking care of the bugs, and Rikku was stealing items as much as she could. That left Corlan to dispatch of the other fiends, and when Lulu was too busy, casting magic on the Yellow Element that kept appearing. The fiends were quite weak for Corlan, and he was quickly bored, even if this was his first chance to practice magic on a proper target, but Wakka and Rikku were getting a rush out of it, and Lulu and Yuna seemed to be appreciating the extra exercise.

They finally reached the temple, and completed the Cloister of Trials with relative ease, most of the party having done it before. The group waited patiently and silently while Yuna entered the Chamber of the Fayth, to attain her next Aeon.

Corlan passed the time by making a mental list of what they thought they knew, and what was still a mystery to them. They knew Evil and Death were reborn, although not who or what they were. They didn't know where the 'place of death' was, although it was most likely the place where Death had died in the first place. And he knew that Death had taken over someone's body. Corlan wondered whether Yuna had shared this piece of information, and decided to divulge it to the others. Yuna obviously had not.

"But then Death could be Sin right?" Put in Rikku, "I mean Sin's soul must have taken over someone's body. Someone at the Calm Lands. Remember that bit about being reborn at the place of death. Sin was killed in the Clam Lands."

"You're right you know." Said Wakka. "And Death couldn't be anyone else but Sin, ya? All that Spiral of Death stuff. But da problem is, how will we know who Sin has taken over? We can't just ask everyone 'Hey, you didn't happen to be possessed by a deadly spirit recently, did ya?'"

"Spiral of Death?" Asked Corlan.

"Yeh." Replied Wakka. "Auron used to go on about it. Sin kills a whole lot of people, and the only thing that can stop it is a Summoner. Guardians die to protect their Summoners, and in the end, the Summoner ends up dying while fighting Sin. And after all that death, the only thing that can come back is Sin, and he just keeps killing until another Summoner comes along. That's the Spiral of Death."

"Now that you put it that way, it does make sense that Sin is Death. But it's not exactly comforting to know that Sin is out and about again, even if he's in the form of a person. Not to mention the fact that we don't know which person, or what on Spira _Evil_ is." Said Corlan, in an alarmed tone.

"My advice is, don't worry about it. When the time comes, we'll know who it is." Said Lulu, quite calmly.

Lulu's words quashed the alarm in Corlan's mind, and, it seemed, everyone else's, and everyone returned to their quiet thinking.

Corlan continued his mental list of what they did and didn't know. The fact that Death was most likely Sin came immediately but other than that not much more entered his list, only that they didn't know what The Forgotten Aeon was, and that they knew that if they failed, Spira would turn into a place of death and evil.

And then the thought of the prophecy almost made him laugh. Not more than two weeks ago Corlan had meandered out of Bevelle in hopes of seeing his place of birth and having an adventure, however small. If somebody had told him then that in no less than two weeks, he would find himself in the thick of a prophecy concerning Spira's salvation or doom, in the company of the most famous Summoner and Guardians in Spira's history, Corlan would have told that somebody to seek help. And now here he found himself. Indeed in the thick of a prophecy concerning the life or death of Spira.

That thought did not want to make him laugh. In fact, Corlan almost wanted to cry.

_At least I got my adventure._ Corlan thought wryly.

At this, Yuna came out of the Chamber of the Fayth. Her face looked even more withdrawn than it had when she had gone in. And then Corlan realised the look on Yuna's face for what it really was.

Resignation.

Yuna didn't really care any more. Everything she had fought for had died. Peace and the belief that Spira might be free of evil for more than just a _year_, but also Tidus. Tidus was dead and Yuna no longer had much reason to live. The thought made Corlan cringe.

The despair that Yuna must have felt every day since Tidus had died slowly crept into Corlan as she spoke.

"I've got Ifrit. Let's get out of here."

A/N: That's it for now. I hope everyone likes the new instalments. Please review and tell me what you think. Until next time.

Enro


	10. Blitzball

A/N: So, I've decided to make another update. This is the first one in a long time, but I haven't really been motivated to make any. So please review! Whenever I used to hear other authors saying that reviews drive them, I thought it was rubbish. But it actually does. If you don't get some sort of feedback, there's no sense of accomplishment. So just review about anything. It don't really care what you say. You can tell me that something doesn't make sense, or that something's confusing, absolutely anything. As long as you tell me something…. OK then, happy reading. I hope you like the next couple of chapters.

**Chapter 10: Blitzball**

As soon as the group was on the S.S. Winno, they told Yuna of the conclusions they had made while she was in the Chamber of the Fayth. Yuna was quite impressed with their brainwork, but the look of resignation only grew. After having this meeting, the group spread about the ship to do what they pleased. Corlan spent the trip practicing with the Aurochs for the tournament in Luca. He first honed his keeping skills, while Wakka practiced his shooting against him, and then practiced his shots against Keepa. Keepa didn't save many of Corlan's shots.

Just before their arrival in Luca, Wakka approached him.

"Hey Corlan. I think I'll be playing you as goalkeeper instead of Keepa. He just ain't up for it, ya?"

"Yeah, he didn't block many of my shots."

Wakka nodded and turned to the team.

"Aurochs!" Yelled Wakka, "In formation! Look smart for the people of Luca!"

The Besaid Aurochs and Corlan disembarked from the S.S. Winno and were met with thunderous applause.

"And here are the current blitzball champions, the Besaid Aurochs. What a show they gave us last year, coming from dead last on the rankings to win the cup!" Came a voice from nowhere.

"Take it in, boys. Returning as blitzball champions. What a day!" Said Wakka in exaltation.

Wakka lead the team down to the change rooms and left to check the standings for the tournament. The team was shuffling around and generally agitated by the time Wakka returned.

"We've been seeded… again. Our first match is against the winner between the Kilika Beasts and the Ronso Fangs. The Fangs will probably win so we should be ready to play them. Ok, here's the set up team, it's all the same, except Keepa, I want you sit this one out. Corlan will be keeping. And I want you guys to watch the game between the Fangs and the Beasts. Watch for any weaknesses you can, or any strengths we can defend against. Ok! Break!"

The Aurochs plus Corlan moved to the stands where Yuna, Lulu, and Rikku were seated. Corlan barely had time to sit down before a loud disembodied voice yelled "Blitzoff!"

Immediately the same voice broke into fast commentary. Corlan blotted out the noise made by the commentator and focused wholly on the game.

A large Ronso had ball in hand and was swimming full pelt towards his goal. The Ronso barged through the Mid-fielder as well as both Backs from the Beasts before kicking the ball unbelievably hard towards the goal.

"And Argai Ronso scores! Beasts 0, Fangs 1!"

Game play continued in this manner. Corlan realised that the Fangs possessed no real skill, and were only managing to win on sheer brute force. The Beasts had skill, but the Fangs' strength more than outweighed it. Not to mention the fact that the Fangs had a pair of really good backs. Corlan also noticed that the Ronsos couldn't swim very fast. With correct use of speed and technique, the Fangs would go down easy.

Corlan was so focused on the game, that before he knew it, there were 30 seconds left in the game. The Fangs had just scored putting them on 8 to the Beasts' 2, and the Beasts were desperate to end the game with a goal. Corlan watched, and having half-listened to the commentary, he had connected names to players.

Deim threw a pass to Vuroja, who immediately shot the ball off to Isken. Isken passed to Larbeight, then Larbeight to Isken, all the while headed towards goal. And then….. Rikku?

_What's _she_ doing in the way?_

Corlan was about to yell at her to sit down when his mouth froze. Corlan began to inspect Rikku for the first time. The skin of her legs was lightly tanned and smooth, and totally bare from the top of her boots to the bottom of her _very_ short green shorts. Corlan's eyes continued to travel upward, over her exposed midriff and onto the tight fitting orange shirt she wore. His eyes continued up to see her face, looking down on him with a smirk about her lips.

"What are you looking at me for? You missed the end of the match!"

And indeed he had. The commentator was screeching about what a great end to the game it was, even if the Beasts had lost. Corlan heard that it was Larbeight who had sunk the final goal of the match, just before the sound of the end of the game. Corlan was ashamed that he had missed it, and blushed when he thought of what he had been looking at instead.

However, before he had the chance to speak to Rikku about it, he heard Wakka calling for all the Aurochs.

Once in the change room, Wakka went over the basics with the team before asking if anyone had noticed anything they could use to their advantage. No one spoke until Corlan voiced his own observations, which Wakka then incorporated into the game plan. Corlan tuned out for this bit, as he was the goalie; all he had to do was block shots. Instead he used the time to tie his hair back into a ponytail so his hair wouldn't float over his eyes and block his vision.

In no time at all it seemed they were swimming into the sphere pool. The whistle sounded and the ball flew into the air. Letty grabbed the ball and immediately started swimming to the left. He belted the ball to Wakka, on the other side of the pool, who made a dash for the goal. When Wakka reached a comfortable distance he shot the ball and it floated past the Fangs' Keeper.

"Nice shot by Wakka of the Aurochs! Aurochs 1, Fangs 0!"

Blitzoff again. The new Mid-fielder for the Fangs, Zev Ronso, grabbed the ball and swam straight forward; he was immediately tackled down by Letty, Wakka, and Datto. Datto had managed to snatch the ball from Zev and swam with it towards the goal. He narrowly avoided being tackled by Nuvy Ronso and swam upwards only to be tackled hard by Irga Ronso. By some miracle he managed to hang onto the ball and shot it into the goal from above.

"Datto scores! Aurochs 2, Fangs 0! And it's halftime!"

After some words of encouragement from Wakka back in the change room they were sent back into the sphere pool. Blitzoff! Three minutes passed of backwards and forwards play. The ball was passed, intercepted and tackled, and nobody had gained much ground. Wakka had the ball and sent it soaring to Letty. And out of nowhere came Argai Ronso, intercepting the ball and making a dash for the goal. All there was between Argai and the goal was Corlan.

And then, at that most crucial moment in the game, a few stray strands of hair found their way out of his ponytail and into his face. It wasn't enough to block his vision, but it was enough to tickle his nose.

He sneezed.

If there was ever one piece of advice Corlan could have given, it would be: Never sneeze under water!

Corlan coughed and blubbered, and this only seemed to make the situation worse.

Argai was twenty metres away and he prepared for a Sphere shot. In the dim recesses of Corlan's brain that weren't busy trying to keep him alive, he knew that letting in this one goal would not lose the Aurochs the game, but he didn't want to let any goals through on this, his first and possibly last stand as Aurochs' keeper.

Corlan watched as Argai tossed the ball up and did a back flip, connecting the ball with extreme force. Time slowed. Corlan could see that the ball was going to the top right corner of the goal. He closed his mouth, plugged his nose with one hand, and reached out with the other. Corlan placed his feet on the bottom left goalpost and pushed off as hard as he could, towards the opposite corner.

And a fleeting thought came to him. _I'm not going to make the save!_

He would never be able to catch the ball, but he did manage to push it just slightly to the right, making the ball miss the goal by a hairsbreadth. He retrieved the ball and shot it off to the closest player to him, who happened to be Wakka. Wakka turned around to find the other four Fangs right on top of him. Four Ronsos tackled him all at once, and he slowly fell to the bottom of the pool.

This was all Corlan got to see before following his friend into the blackness.

"An amazing save by the new Aurochs Keeper, Corlan! And it's Fulltime! Aurochs win 2-0!"


	11. The Finals

**Chapter 11: The Finals**

"That was brutal. Tackled by four Ronsos. That has to hurt." Rikku's voice floated across the darkness to him.

Corlan coughed and opened his eyes to see Yuna and Rikku looking down at him. He turned his head from his lying position on the bench to see Wakka lying down and moaning with Lulu fussing over him.

Corlan sat up and instantly became dizzy. He lay back down quickly only to hit his head against the hard material of the bench.

"Ow!"

"C'mon stop whining and get up!" Said Rikku while helping him to sit up.

Yuna smiled down at him. "Great save Corlan!"

"Yeh, pretty good for a guy with a lungful of water." Said Rikku with a smirk.

Corlan was still a bit too dizzy to answer so just gave them both a smile.

Corlan looked over at Wakka to see the rest of the Aurochs crowded around him.

"What're we gonna do without the cap'n? We're up against the Goers next and we can't do it without Cap'n Wakka." One of the Aurochs said.

"Don worry bout it." Said Wakka weakly. "Corlan's a good shooter, he'll take my place. That is if you're up for it Corlan?"

"Yeah I should be right. I'm just a bit dizzy."

Wakka nodded, very weakly and very awkwardly seeing as he was lying down. "You're in goals Keepa. And remember; go for goal! Raudy's not that great a keeper; you guys can get past him easy! Now go get ready." Wakka closed his eyes with Lulu sitting by his side stroking his arm.

Corlan was a bit nervous about being a main player on the team. Goalkeepers weren't really seen in the eyes of the public, but shooters were the most famous. The thought was quite vague, but still there, as Corlan was using most of his mental energy to overcome the small amount of dizziness left over from what he would now think of as his "sneezing incident".

"Good luck!" Said Yuna from behind them as they made their way to the sphere pool.

"Oi, Corlan! Wait up!" He turned to see Rikku right behind him. She turned her finger in a circle, which Corlan took to mean "turn around". He felt Rikku take out his hair-tie and fiddle around with his hair before tying it back up. It felt a lot more secure and Corlan thought he heard Rikku mumble something about a woman's touch, which Corlan understood, but then he thought he heard her mutter something about tattoos. _What's she on about?_ He thought, but he pushed the thought down. He had to concentrate.

"Can't have your hair falling in your face now can we?" Corlan smiled and nodded his thanks before turning to go. Before he got too far Rikku called out, "Oh yeah, try not to breathe in too much water this time, Ok!"

All she got for a reply was Corlan's laugh as he ran to catch up to his teammates.

"The Aurochs playing the Goers! And no Wakka for the Aurochs either. What a repeat of last year! Isn't it exciting folks?" Came the disembodied voice of the commentator.

The players swam to their positions, and Corlan found himself face to face with Abus, a fierce shooter, who was jeering at him.

Blitzoff!

Letty grabbed the ball and began swimming. Corlan immediately swam away from other players and as close to the goal as he could get.

He turned to grab the ball Letty had passed to him and immediately shot it at the goal. He knew the keeper would catch it, but was right in Raudy's face when he did. Raudy tried to pass it to one of his teammates but Corlan intercepted the pass and easily slipped the ball past him.

"Aurochs 1, Goers 0! Excellent shoot and cover manoeuvre by the new Aurochs forward Corlan!"

Blitzoff!

The Goers gained possession of the ball and Graav immediately passed it to Abus. Corlan attempted to tackle him but failed horribly. Abus threw a pass to Bickson, who was out in the open. Bickson shot it past Keepa like he wasn't even there.

"It's a tie! One all! The Aurochs are gonna need better goalkeeping to win this game!"

Blitzoff!

Letty obtained the ball and then threw a weak pass to Datto. Bickson intercepted, and shot the ball from halfway. By some horrible stroke of luck Keepa managed to miss the ball and it sailed straight through his fingertips.

"Aurochs 1, Goers 2! Another excellent shot from Bickson! And it's halftime!"

The Aurochs returned to the locker room to find Wakka sitting up, although very weakly. Wakka had very little time to tell them anything before they had to go back into the sphere pool again. Wakka just told them to keep strong on the attack since Keepa wasn't good enough to save anything. Of course he didn't say it in those words, so as not to offend Keepa.

The Aurochs swam out into the sphere pool to await the word.

"Blitzoff!"

The ball shot into the air and Letty grabbed it and passed it straight to Corlan. Graav and Abus quickly tackled him of the ball.

The half continued, with nobody scoring and the Aurochs going for goal in desperation. Throughout the half the Aurochs had somehow managed to keep most of the possession, and were currently in possession. Letty passed the ball to Datto, who had managed to break through the Goers' line of defence. Datto rushed at the goal, and feinted a shot, sending Raudy flying after nothing. Datto then put the ball easily into an empty goal with silent cheers and back slapping from the rest of the Aurochs.

"Aurochs 2, Goers 2! An amazing feint and shot by Datto! And it's Fulltime! Looks like we're going into Overtime here! Next goal wins! You can cut the tension with a knife folks!"

"This is do or die!" Yelled Wakka once they were in the locker room. He seemed to have fully recovered from the previous game. "We need to get the next goal! Here's the plan…"

Wakka finished with his plan and the Aurochs made their way to the sphere pool.

Blitzoff!

Letty grabbed the ball and Corlan swam straight to the bottom of the pool as per the plan. He had Balgerda right on top of him. He turned to Letty and signalled for the ball and Letty passed it to him. Corlan grabbed the ball and brought it overhead, pretending to pass, making Balgerda back of in an attempt to block his pass.

Instead of passing, Corlan dropped the ball behind him and did a forward flip, catching Balgerda off guard. His foot connected with the ball and sent it speeding up high. Corlan's foot continued its path and came down hard on Balgerda's head, knocking her out. Corlan then pushed hard off the bottom of the pool, and flew up towards the ball. He flew past the ball and scooped it onto his foot, doing a back flip. Corlan did more and more back flips with the ball still on his foot until he was spinning so fast that the usually calm water was spinning and warping around him.

All of a sudden the ball flew out of the blur that was Corlan and straight into the goal before Raudy could even react.

"AUROCHS WIN 3-2!"


	12. Friends and Fiends

A/N: Alright, I realise I've only got 2 reviews, but I just finished writing the story, and I figured a complete story gets more viewers than a WIP, so I've decided to just get everything out there. I hope you like it. Please don't forget to review!

**Chapter 12: Friends and Fiends**

"That shot was AWESOME!" Yelled Wakka, who seemed not only to have recovered, but to have twice the energy that he normally had.

Corlan grinned at all the attention he was getting. After the game he had received many offers to join various teams. Screaming fans wanted his autograph, and wanted him to teach them the shot he had used. Corlan called it the Momentum Shot, though others had dubbed it the Corlan-Flipkick. Corlan was currently surrounded by all of his travelling companions and the Aurochs, all of whom were congratulating him on his magnificent shot.

Wakka handed the cup to Letty, "Take this safely to Besaid, ya?"

"Sure thing, Cap'n!" Came Letty's reply.

"We best be going." Said Lulu, "We can make it to the Mi'ihen Highroad agency before dark"

The group bid farewell to the rest of the Aurochs, and made their way through Luca, with great difficulty, as not only were Lady Yuna and her guardians there, but also the quite famous Corlan, and screaming fans flocked to them. Eventually Corlan had to threaten the crowd to move by brandishing the Soul Reaver. Corlan noticed some eyes narrow at the sight of the sword, and then narrow even further when they saw his face.

_Probably some thieves with their hopes set on stealing my sword. Well while I've got it they won't be coming anywhere near me._

With Corlan's sword-brandishing the crowd parted and the group finally got to the start of the Mi'ihen Highroad. While on the Highroad, Wakka spent every moment he could, while he wasn't fighting fiends, to ask Corlan how he had done the 'Corlan-Flipkick'.

"Ok!" Said Corlan, after Wakka asked him for the 50th time, "I'll show it to you when we get to the Travel Agency."

The whole party seemed much happier since leaving Luca. Even Yuna seemed to be happier, although Corlan suspected it was an act. _Blitzball must remind her of Tidus _he thought. Thinking about how sad Yuna must be was starting to take its toll on Corlan, so he diverted his attention to the others. Whenever he thought of Yuna's emotions and burdens, he seemed to feel them himself.

When observing the others, he noticed there was something odd about Rikku. Whenever he looked at her she had an inward smile on her face, as if she found something funny that no one else could see. But what really confused Corlan was that the smile seemed to vanish when Rikku made eye contact with him. And then it dawned on him. _This is about when she caught me looking at her at that Blitz game. Oh man, I gotta talk to her about that, and soon._

He decided to wait for the right moment to talk to her. Bored with examining the others for now, he turned his attention to his surroundings.

Corlan found the Mi'ihen highroad much less dull than Kilika Woods. The fiends here presented something of a challenge, which Corlan was glad to accept. He decided that now would be a good time to fill up his Overdrive, since he had left it unfilled after the attack on the Djose Highroad. It came in very handy, when all of a sudden a massive boss fiend burst onto the road.

"It's the Chocobo Eater!" Yelled Yuna, "Knock it onto it's back, that's when it's most vulnerable!"

Lulu instantly cast Ultima on the fiend and it didn't seem to have much affect.

"What!" She yelled, "It seems to have gotten stronger, much stronger. This is going to be a nasty battle."

At that moment the Chocobo Eater swiped at Corlan with its long arms causing some serious damage. Yuna was about to Cure him, and he said, "Don't waste it on me. Help the others."

Wakka and Lulu attacked the fiend from long range while Yuna boosted them with White Magic. Corlan was attacking the fiend from close range, and attracting all of the damage. Rikku, at a loss for what to do, stood back and threw grenades at the Chocobo Eater.

The battle raged on and the beast still had not fallen. Corlan had long since fallen into a rhythm of dodging as many attacks as possible and slashing at whatever part of the Chocobo Eater came within range. Several times Yuna was forced to heal Corlan, or else he would have surely died. In the heat of battle, Corlan had forgotten that could have just as easily healed himself.

The way this battle was going it would never end. They needed a way to make the Chocobo Eater fall over, and Corlan tried desperately to think of something.

"Go for the legs!" He yelled.

At the same moment that Corlan sliced across the back of the fiend's right leg, Wakka threw his blitzball at the other, and a grenade and an Ultima spell simultaneously exploded underneath the Chocobo Eater. It fell flat on it's back.

"Now! Attack!"

"Attack Reels!"

"Ultima Fury!"

The smoke cleared away from the Chocobo Eater after the simultaneous Overdrives hit, and the group found the fiend still lying on it's back.

"Stand back everyone! Valefor! Come to me!"

The Aeon swooped down out of the sky and Yuna yelled "Energy Blast!"

Valefor let out a monstrous attack, which should easily kill the fiend. And yet, when the dust cleared again, there it was, still lying there.

"What's wrong with this thing?" Wakka yelled, clearly wondering how anything could survive such an attack, "We gotta kill it before it gets back up!"

"Soul Raid!"

The dust rippled outwards from Corlan, and when the ripple reached the Chocobo Eater, a jet of white light erupted from it and straight into Corlan. The Chocobo Eater vanished in a cloud of pyreflies.

The group gave a collective sigh of relief before heading to the Travel Agency, which they had only just noticed had been in view throughout the entire battle. Nobody spoke for the short walk to the Travel Agency, the only sound being the slap of their feet on the hard packed dirt of the Highroad. The first person to speak was Yuna who purchased two rooms for the night from the person at the counter. Wakka and Corlan walked into their shared room and collapsed onto their beds, asleep before their heads hit the pillows.

"That's a really good Overdrive you have there, Corlan." Said Wakka while they were sitting in the front room of the Travel Agency the next morning.

"Thanks"

"Is that the only one you have?" Asked Wakka.

"Yeah, I dunno how my Overdrive works yet, so I only have the one." Replied Corlan. "I noticed that the rest of you guys have heaps of different Overdrives. How'd you get so many?"

"You know how much blitzball I had to practice to get those Overdrives? By the time I got this many Overdrives I was almost bored of the game, ya know?"

They both looked at each other and grinned.

"Almost!" They said in unison before breaking into laughter. Both of them knew blitz would _never_ get boring no matter how much they played.

"Ya know, you're full of surprises. First you battle like a pro, then you pull off that awesome blitz shot, and now you have this amazing Overdrive. How old you say you were?"

Corlan grinned, "Fifteen"

":Fifteen! If I was that good at blitz at fifteen I'd be the World Champion by now!"

"But you have the World Champion." Said Corlan with a smile.

Wakka turned a confused face to Corlan. "Did that Chocobo Eater hit you in the head? I don't have the World Champion! Unless the World Champion is a woman then I'm not having him! I'll bet you that Bickson is the World Champion. I always thought that something was off with that guy. Why, did Bickson say something to you? Coz you can tell that damn fruit that I'm not gay!"

"Don't you call that ball of yours World Champion?" Corlan was close bursting with his bottled up laughter.

Wakka looked down at the ball he was holding and then threw it at Corlan's head.

When Corlan stopped laughing, he noticed Rikku standing in the doorway leading to the other rooms. He decided it was as good a time as any to talk to her. He walked over to her.

"Listen Rikku," He began. "About what happened at the blitzball game. I was just watching the game, and then you were in the way… and then… well…"

"Hey, forget about it. It's no biggie. We'll just pretend that it never happened. Kay?" She said, holding out her hand.

Corlan took it and shook it, a bit bewildered "Kay."

Rikku just nodded and walked off. Corlan felt a bit confused, and he didn't think the issue was resolved, but he decided to drop it.

Once everyone was gathered in the front room of the Travel Agency the companions opened the door and were faced with torrential rain. The dreary gloom that accompanies rain immediately swept over them, sucking all of the happiness and laughter out of the air.

By the time they were ten metres away from the agency they were all drenched to the bone. They made their way down the Highroad, not speaking and encountering very few fiends. The going was slow but they eventually came to the Mushroom Rock Road. As they continued the rain slowly thinned out and the fiend attacks came more often in response. When they reached Djose Temple, no sign of the rain was left, other than the rivers of water flowing down the slight slope away from the temple.

"I'll go in by myself" Said Yuna, "You guys just wait out here."

"You sure Yunie? It might be dangerous. You might need us when you come out of the Chamber of the Fayth." Rikku said in worry.

"I'm sure." And with that, Yuna walked into the temple.

"While we have the time why don't you show me the Corlan-Flipkick, ya?"

And so Corlan showed Wakka his blitzball shot while Rikku watched them and Lulu stood off to the side, apparently lost in her own thoughts.

"I think I'm getting tha hang of it!" Yelled Wakka after what must be his hundredth try. He did the flip-kick to get the ball into the air, shot up, got the ball onto his foot, and then let it go too early, sending it speeding down to the ground. The ball hit the ground and bounced up to hit Wakka in the face while he was still in the air. He fell flat onto his back before Corlan could do anything to stop it.

"Ugh." Said Wakka from the ground as Corlan, Lulu and Rikku came running to him, "There goes my back."

Rikku giggled.

"This is no time to be laughing, Rikku. Wakka's in serious pain." Said Lulu admonishingly.

Corlan cast Cure on Wakka, and his groans subsided slightly. He cast Cure again and Wakka got up from the ground, apparently relieved from his pain.

"Thanks a lot Corlan. It's a good thing Yuna taught you to use Cure, ya? Well I'm alright, no thanks to you Rikku."

Rikku giggled again, "Corlan can pull off the shot and you can't. Which one of you has been playing for 11 years again?"

"Knock it off" Said Wakka.

Not long afterwards, Yuna emerged from the temple. The gloom the rain had brought on seemed not to have left her face, and the look of hopelessness and despair had only grown. Corlan had no idea what she was going through, and had no idea how to fix it.

"I got Ixion. I think we should rest before we go on. Is something the matter Wakka?"

"No, it's nothing." He grumbled.


	13. A Reminiscing Friend

**Chapter 13: A Reminiscing Friend**

Corlan spent the trip towards the Moonflow talking with Rikku. He found that he enjoyed her company the most, since the others were a lot older than him, and Rikku was very close to his age being only a year older than him. Yuna wasn't that much older than him but she acted as if she had many more years behind her. Corlan couldn't blame her either. Being the High Summoner, defying Yevon, defeating Sin, all of that would do a lot to a person. And now this new threat. The threat of Sin, reincarnated. And also the threat of Evil, whatever that was. Yuna must be feeling so bad, having saved Spira once and now having to save it again.

The relationship between Rikku and Corlan seemed to have returned to the way it used to be. Rikku was acting normally, so Corlan thought he should just forget about what had happened at the blitzball stadium.

"We're nearing the Moonflow." Said Rikku, "I love the look of the Moonflow, especially at sunset. It's so beautiful."

"I know. I saw it during sunset on my way to Besaid. It was breathtaking."

"Well listen to you, Mr I've-seen-the-whole-world."

Corlan came to the top of the hill to see the Moonflow again. It looked so nice, but definitely not as peaceful and beautiful as it was the first time Corlan had been here. When Corlan had been here before, he had never known that he would be back so soon, accompanied by Lady Yuna and her former guardians. No. They were guardians, not _former_ guardians. Yuna was a Summoner again.

_I guess that makes me a guardian too._ Thought Corlan. He liked the sound of it. 'Sir Corlan, guardian to Lady Yuna on her second pilgrimage.'

Yuna and guardians boarded the shoopuf, and it set off. Corlan looked down into the water and saw the underwater city again.

"I can't believe there's a city down there, beneath all that water. It must have been huge. Bigger than Bevelle for sure."

"Definitely big, but not as big as Zanarkand. Even the ruin of Zanarkand is bigger than that city. Imagine what Zanarkand must have been like 1000 years ago. Bigger than this city, and Luca, and Bevelle all put together. It must have been wonderful" Said Yuna, seeming incredibly happy and equally sad at the same time.

The shoopuf reached the opposite shore and the companions disembarked.

"Guadosalam next." Said Yuna. "Soon we can speak to Auron in the Farplane."

The closer the group got to Guadosalam, the more worried Rikku seemed to grow.

"What's the matter?" Asked Corlan.

"Oh, it's those Guado. They remind me of Seymour. Seymour frightens me. He was so evil. And we're getting closer to the Thunder Plains."

"Right" Said Corlan.

He didn't have a clue about what Rikku was talking about, but he didn't want to make her talk about it, so he left it alone. All he knew was that Seymour was the former Maester of the Guado, and was now dead. The new Maester was a man named Tromell Guado. That was all Corlan knew about the new Maester.

The group entered Guadosalam and made straight for the Farplane. "I'm so eager to speak to Auron to see if he knows anything." Yuna said, somehow seeming to have left behind her usual mood for now.

Corlan had never been to the Farplane before and was amazed when he found a colour-changing sphere in front of him.

"Tell me what he says, OK?" Said Rikku.

"Aren't you coming?" Asked Corlan.

"No, Al Bhed's don't go into the Farplane. It's against tradition."

"Oh, Ok"

Yuna stepped through the semi-transparent wall first. After seeing how it was done Corlan followed. His breath caught. He appeared to be standing on a platform, suspended in midair and surrounded by cloud. Corlan looked down and saw the most beautiful sight. A waterfall was flowing in a ring and at the bottom was a field of flowers. Corlan wondered why the Al Bhed wouldn't want to come here, it was so beautiful. Corlan looked at the rest of the group and saw them speaking to a man in a long red coat. That must be Auron. Corlan joined the group.

"So you see." Yuna was saying, "We need to know where Masamune is to defeat Death and Evil."

"One moment." Said Auron, and vanished.

He appeared again soon afterwards.

"I can go with you." He said, and then he stepped onto the platform.

Corlan experienced a moment of shock. Before Auron had been transparent, but the moment he stepped onto the platform he appeared to be solid. Corlan couldn't help but reach out and touch him. He even felt solid.

"What are you doing!" He said, apparently quite calm, although he was very intimidating.

"Uh, I-I'm sorry s-sir. I-I couldn't h-help myself." Stuttered Corlan.

"Hmph"

Auron began to walk towards the glittering wall. "Sir Auron!" called Yuna. "Would you mind if we spent some time here before leaving?"

"If you must." Came Auron's reply.

Yuna, Lulu, and Wakka went to separate edges of the platform, and Corlan found himself a spot.

Corlan had never been to the Farplane before but had been told that in order to see your dead loved ones you had to concentrate on them as hard as you could.

Taking these words to heart, he thought as hard as he could of his father, Jarith. Corlan opened his eyes, not realising he had closed them in his concentration.

No one was in front of him.

So, Jarith had never been Sent. He had never came to the Farplane. He had turned into a fiend, maybe even a fiend that Corlan had killed.

He left the Farplane, the thought too much for him to bear. Corlan's father had died almost 8 years ago, and Corlan had already spent his time grieving, getting over and accepting his father's death. But the fact that Jarith's soul had been left to wander, watching the living until he became loathsome of them, and in his hate of the living had transformed into a bloodthirsty fiend, was just too difficult to bear. His father's soul had hated him, just for being alive. And in the end he had turned into a fiend.

Corlan had become to think of fiends as pestering nuisances, a waste of time. _My father was one. They can't be so bad… No. They are bad. Why did you have to turn into one, Jarith?_

He sat with Rikku, not speaking, waiting for the others to come out of the Farplane. Rikku didn't say anything, but simply put her hand on Corlan's shoulder, sensing that Corlan was in some kind of pain. Corlan was too caught up in his thoughts to realise the gesture.

Finally Yuna, Wakka, and Lulu exited the Farplane, followed by Auron. Rikku gasped.

"Auron!"

Rikku looked quite startled and excited, but Auron's stiff face never changed.

"Auron has agreed to show us where Masamune is." Explained Yuna, in a very formal voice. Her mood seemed to have returned.

The group made their way through Guadosalam and Corlan approached Auron.

"Umm, Sir Auron. I'm sorry about the way I acted before. It's just you suddenly became solid and I couldn't believe it. By the way, my name is Corlan." He said, offering his hand.

Auron looked down at his hand for a moment, and then took hold of it firmly. "I understand. Yuna and the others told me of you." Auron said in a gruff voice. Auron nodded as if all that needed to be said had been, and turned to continue walking.

"Jarith! Jarith I can't believe it's you! I thought you were dead! Listen…" Corlan turned to address the deep slow voice that had come from behind him, and the Guado who had been speaking to him stopped.

"Oh, I see you are not him. So sorry to disturb you." The Guado turned to go.

"No! Wait! You knew my father?"

"Your father? You are Jarith's son? Yes, of course, you appear to be the right age. My name is Rygel Guado. Please, you and your companions must come to lunch with me in my home so that we may speak." Rygel's eyes drifted to Corlan's companions and he gasped. "Oh my. Jarith's son in the company of Lady Yuna and her guardians. Jarith would have been proud, my boy! Please Lady Yuna it would be an honour if you would dine with me in my humble home."

"No, it would be our honour." Yuna replied with a grim formality. "We accept your invitation."

"If you would follow me then." Rygel turned and the group followed.

As Rygel lead the way to his home, Corlan noticed the strangest of things. Between Rygel's spiky Guado locks he spied the picture of a hand tattooed on the nape of the Guado's neck. Corlan thought it was his imagination at first but he saw the tattoo again several more times and his doubt was removed. He also noticed, and not knowing why he noticed it, that the hand was either a left hand facing down, or a right hand facing up, because the thumb stuck out to the right. And somehow, Corlan just _knew _it was a left hand.

"Welcome to my home." Announced Rygel upon opening a door that looked as if it should open up to the outside world.

Corlan looked around the home. The entire place looked like it was a natural hollow in a very large tree. Even the low table in the centre of the relatively small room appeared to be a natural occurrence of this hollow in the tree.

"Come and sit." Said Rygel, sweeping his hand in the general direction of the table. When Corlan looked properly he found that there were cushions arrayed around the low table.

Corlan took a seat on one of the cushions, and Rikku soon followed, sitting on his right. Wakka sat on Corlan's left and Lulu immediately placed herself on Wakka's left. Yuna carefully arranged her dress before sitting on Rikku's right, and Auron calmly placed himself to the left of Lulu, leaving a space for Rygel who had disappeared into the house somewhere.

Rygel soon returned bearing a large platter of obscure looking roots and other things Corlan had to assume were vegetables, and a rather large bowl of what looked to be fat wriggling grubs.

Rygel must have seen the worried glances the companions were giving the food.

"Please. Eat. It tastes better than it looks, I assure you."

Auron was the first to reach out and grab a grub, having never looked too worried about the food. Auron placed the grub in his mouth, and Corlan watched the muscles of Auron's jaw as he bit down on the grub with a crunch. Auron chewed with a semi-surprised expression on his face, and was soon reaching for another grub.

Corlan decided to try his luck. He reached out, grabbed one of the things by what he assumed was the back end, and placed it in his mouth. The creature still wriggled in his mouth, and for that one second of surprise Corlan almost spat the thing out. He impulsively bit into it to stop the squirming. The thing had a crunchy outer layer, but the centre was meaty and juicy.

The juices bombarded his tongue with the most amazing taste sensation he had ever felt. As he savoured the flavour, the juices ran to the back of his throat, and all he could do was make some mumbled noises of satisfaction.

At these noises, Wakka and Rikku reached into the bowl to taste the things. Auron was already onto his fourth grub. Not long after Yuna and Lulu had decided to try the grubs, and Corlan could tell that they found them as delicious as he did.

Corlan was the first to try something from the vegetable platter. They were nowhere near as tasty as the grubs, but they were still good considering that they were _vegetables_.

After a very satisfying, and surprisingly filling meal the companions graciously thanked their host. During the meal nobody had spoken, as they were too busy using the time to eat the great food, and Corlan was the first to speak up after their thanks for the meal.

"So how did you know my father? Were you a Crusader?"

Wakka snorted at this but Corlan ignored it.

"You could say I was a Crusader, although there are no Crusaders among the Guado." Was Rygel's mystic reply. "Your father was a great man, and a greater warrior. There is a lot of him in you."

Rygel looked off into distance, as though looking straight into the past. He smiled. "Of course, your father was the wild card of the group. He would get a look in his eye, as if all he wanted to do was kill something. And sometimes he would get angry beyond belief for a few seconds, then calm down and forget all about it. He was the most unstable man I knew, until he met your mother…."

Rygel smiled as his voice trailed off, obviously taking a walk down memory lane.

"Wait, you said something about a group. What group is that?" Asked Corlan.

"Ah, just a group of friends. That is all you need to know. And I see you carry your father's blade." Rygel said, nodding to the hilt of the sword that was visible over Corlan's shoulder.

"Yes. He gave it to me when I was 7, just before he went off to fight that Sinspawn and die."

"Sinspawn? Oh yes, of course. Now, listen to me Corlan. Don't you lose that blade. It may cause some trouble with the wrong people, but the good it will do you will far outweigh the bad. Do not lose it."

Corlan nodded his agreement before something Rygel had said registered on him. "How'd you know my name, Rygel?"

"Ah, it was all your father spoke of after you were born. How good-looking his young Corlan would become, how great a warrior Corlan would become. You were his pride and joy, my boy. You and that sword of his of course. He called you and that sword his lucky charms. I still can't believe he gave you that sword and took up some machina weapon to fight that Sinspawn. He must have had a death wish." Rygel said with a laugh.

Corlan was shocked. _My father wanted to die?_ He stared at Rygel's face, speechless, and Rygel seemed to realise what he had done. " I'm so sorry, my boy. I was joking. I did not mean to hurt you. I spoke before I thought. I know your father didn't have a death wish. All he wanted was to be with you, my boy. All he was doing in giving you that sword was passing down a family heirloom. I'm so terribly sorry Corlan. I hope you can forgive my blunder."

Corlan leaned back and exhaled heavily. _No death wish. Just a joke from a reminiscing friend. _

"Now Corlan, I would be honoured if you would stay the night in my home to rest your weary bones. In fact I insist. I've never seen a group of people eat that many Ouittchets and still be able to finish off the vegetables. You must all be very tired or very worried. I know for a fact that eating is a cure for both of those conditions. Maybe you are all inflicted with a bit of both?"

Corlan looked questioningly at Yuna, who Corlan had forgotten was present during his talk with Rygel. Yuna simply nodded.

"We'd be glad to accept your offer." Said Yuna.


	14. The Thunder Plains

**Chapter 14: The Thunder Plains**

The companions filed out of Rygel's home the following morning after a filling breakfast. Once everyone was standing outside his doorway, Rygel turned to face them all.

"Goodbye to you all. Don't be a stranger, Corlan. The son of Jarith is always welcome in my home."

"Thank you, Rygel." Replied Corlan.

"Yes thank you very much for offering your home to us, Master Rygel. I'm sure we will meet again." Said Yuna, rather formally.

"Ah, it was truly a pleasure. Bye now!" And the Guado started waving to them before they had started moving.

Corlan waved back and turned towards the exit of Guadosalam. Almost automatically he fell in beside Rikku. The two had a very good friendship, and he only had one other person with which he had such a relationship, and that was Wakka. But since Wakka spent most of his time walking with Lulu, and Lulu frightened Corlan somewhat, Corlan found himself spending the majority of his time with Rikku.

As the group came closer to the exit, the booming of thunder from the Thunder Plains grew louder, and Corlan noticed that Rikku was edging closer and closer to him.

"What's up, Rikku? I thought you were scared of the Guado because they reminded you of Seymour. Why are you just getting more scared?"

"Ummm… this is sort of embarrassing but… it wasn't really the Guado I was scared of. I'm still scared of them a bit, but what I'm really scared of is… lightning" She finished with a shudder.

"What's wrong with lightning?" Asked Corlan, confused.

"Well, when I was younger, I was out swimming and I got hit by lightning. It reeeeally hurt. And I've been scared of it ever since."

"That's stupid. Not that long ago I was dead scared of Sin. I wouldn't even leave my house because I was scared that if I did, Sin would be there to kill me. But Yuna and all of you guys killed him for good. Well not really for good but you know what I mean. I wasn't scared of him any more so I went off on an adventure to Besaid and met with all of you. And with all of you I learnt that Sin was back from the dead. I should have been scared, like before, but I wasn't, because I had already come so far from home, and I knew it couldn't protect me. I realised that whether I was inside the house or out, if Sin wanted to kill me then he would. It's like being afraid of being inside because the walls might collapse on you."

"Yeh…" Rikku said dully.

"When was the last time you got hit by lightning anyway?"

"Well… I've only been hit once."

"And if the sky decides it wants to hit you with lightning, is there anything you can do?"

"No" Said Rikku, her tone steadily becoming more enthusiastic.

"So is there any reason to be scared?"

"No! There isn't! Hey, thanks Corlan!" Rikku said before throwing herself at him and hugging him.

Corlan was caught by surprise, so stumbled when she threw herself at him. He didn't know what to do with himself while Rikku was hugging him, so just managed a feeble "No problem."

Rikku finally got off him, and they proceeded to the Thunder Plains, Rikku with a spring in her step.

"What are you so happy about? I thought you hated the Thunder Plains." Said Lulu as Rikku skipped past her.

"Not anymore!" Rikku said, laughing.

Lulu only raised her eyebrows.

The group reached the end of the tunnel, and stood a while beneath the shelter of the rock.

"OK, you know the drill, stick to the path, coz that's where you won't get hit by lightning." Said Wakka as if he was talking to his blitzball team. "I shouldn't have to tell you that, Rikku." Wakka said, laughing.

Rikku stuck out her tongue at Wakka and ran out into the rain.

"Hey, wait up, will ya!" Said Wakka before following her out.

Auron strode out into the rain without a word, and Corlan shared an amused glance with Yuna and Lulu before the three of them stepped out to follow the others. There was a constant rumble of thunder in the air, and flashes of light went off in the distance continually. The rain was pelting down heavily, and it didn't take long for Corlan to become totally drenched, his hair falling into his face and sticking with wetness.

Corlan heard a particularly loud rumble and prepared himself for an earth-shaking lightning strike. The massive boss fiend that crashed through the low rock hill to their right came as a surprise to them all. It was a huge, thickly muscled beast with a long, single horn on its head, and came in running on all fours. It looked like what Corlan had heard a Behemoth looked like, but this thing was far too big to fit that description.

As soon as the thing came into view, Auron began strolling away from it. Corlan snarled at Auron, but soon put Auron and whatever he was doing out of his mind. The beast had separated the group, with Wakka and Rikku to one side of it, and Corlan, Lulu, and Yuna to the other side. It obviously saw the advantage of its position, and set in on Rikku and Wakka, forgetting about the rest for now.

Wakka immediately threw his blitzball at it, while Rikku threw grenades at it. Lulu was casting Ultima while Yuna used the Sensor ability of her staff to study the fiend. Corlan had to get its attention away from Wakka and Rikku, but how? He settled for slashing at its hind legs yelling, "Over here, you big ugly fool!"

The words only seemed to spur it on. It made a huge swipe and knocked both Rikku and Wakka into a nearby lightning tower. Upon hitting the tower they both slumped over, apparently unconscious. The beast turned its attention on the others.

Abruptly Yuna yelled, "Aim for the head! Hit it with thunder on its horn!"

Lulu switched to using the Thundaga spell, and aiming for the horn. Yuna yelled, "Ixion, come forth!" and raised her staff in a surge of electricity. Corlan tried to do the same as Lulu, but with the thing swinging its head around like it was, he couldn't seem to hit it. He briefly wondered how Lulu was able to hit it.

_Only other way to hurt it is to aim for the head _thought Corlan. He shrugged and stabbed the Soul Reaver into the flesh of the fiend's leg, to use as an aid in climbing onto its back.

After much effort Corlan climbed onto the fiend's back, just in time to hear Yuna yell, "Ixion, Thor's Hammer!"

Corlan looked down to see a huge blast of thunder coming from the Aeon at Yuna's side, and only had enough time to thrust his sword up to the cross guard into the fiend's back before it flew into the air from the blast. Corlan held onto the hilt for dear life as the fiend flew up into the air before hitting the ground with a massive thud.

Corlan shook his head to relieve himself of dizziness before he retrieved his sword from it's back, and waited for the fiend to explode into a cloud of pyreflies. That blast had surely killed the beast. And yet the beast stood up, however shakily, and continued to attack the ladies down on the ground.

Corlan ran up onto the beast's shoulders. With a wordless yell he plunged the sword into the meeting between its neck and head. The fiend's front legs buckled as Lulu continued to barrage it's horn with Thundaga spells and Yuna cast protective spells over the both of them.

Corlan knew this one thrust was not enough. He pulled the hilt of the sword to the left, and then the right, widening the initial wound. The beast's hind legs buckled as well. Corlan withdrew his sword from the wound at the same time that Lulu cast Thundaga at its horn one last time. The boss fiend exploded in a cloud of pyreflies. Corlan fell through the air and landed painfully on his backside, before standing up and tiredly running over to where Yuna was already leaning over Wakka and Rikku.

Rikku was already sitting up by the time Corlan reached them.

"Are you OK, Rikku?" Corlan asked worriedly.

"Bit groggy. Must be how you felt after you woke up from your lungful of water." Rikku said with a weak smile.

Corlan laughed softly and saw that Wakka was sitting up as well, with Lulu worrying over him. It was then that Corlan heard the crunch of a boot on the gravel path behind them.

Corlan turned around and pointed his sword at Auron, the rain now falling straight into his eyes. "What are you playing at? Why didn't you fight? They could almost have been killed!" Corlan yelled, his eyes briefly flashing red.

Auron stared him in the eyes for a long moment before answering. "I have specific orders from the Fayth not to meddle in this world. I'm already altering too much by showing you where Masamune is. I cannot alter anything else. If they almost died then that is how it was meant to be. Now lower your sword." The whole time Auron's voice contained an eerily calm quality.

Corlan stared Auron in the eyes for a moment before finally lowering his sword, somewhat grudgingly. He understood that Auron couldn't meddle in a world he didn't belong to, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Of course, Corlan didn't know that Auron had done his fair share of meddling in a world that he should have already left.

"OK," Auron said. "Get up you two and let's move."


	15. Never the Same

A/N: This is the chapter that the story was rated for – it's got some pretty graphic stuff in it. Please tell me if you think the story is badly rated (either overrated or underrated), and don't forget to review!

**Chapter 15: Never the Same**

In no time at all, it seemed, the group was entering Macalania woods. Corlan stopped and took the time to look at his surroundings. The path they were travelling on appeared to be a thick tree branch, totally flat and covered with moss. The trees and bushes lining the path seemed to give the place its own life. Seeming from the distance, but at the same time from the very air around him, a peaceful music was playing, and the air seemed sprinkled with tiny, shining crystals. Slightly to his left was a shining path, leading over the treetops. All together it was an amazing sight, and even having seen it before did not detract from beauty of it.

"This way" Yuna said, leading them down the left of two paths.

The track curved its way through the woods, and the companions travelled in silence. They encountered the occasional fiend, but they only ever attacked one at a time, and were dispatched easily, although they were a lot tougher than many of the other fiends since Besaid. Corlan felt he was lucky to have survived his first trip through these woods.

Long after the continual winding of the path became boring, the group emerged at the end of the path. Just ahead was the path to Macalania temple. Corlan rushed ahead; it was nearly dark and the fight against the boss fiend, which Yuna had later called a Humbaba, had taken a lot out of him. He could feel rather than see the others close behind him.

Soon he could feel the crunching of snow beneath his feet, but kept his eyes trained forward. It often amazed Corlan how one could walk from booming thunder, to peaceful forest, to falling snow all in one day.

The Travel Agency was in sight, and Corlan quickened his step, eager to get some rest. He opened the door to the agency eagerly, and stopped in his tracks.

Blood. He didn't think he'd ever seen so much blood. A man lay slumped over the counter, blood pooling underneath his head. A woman in the corner, a chair leg through her stomach. Splinters of wood and chunks of furniture, strewn all over the floor. A man, slumped against a wall, and behind him, a smear of blood almost reaching to the ceiling. What appeared to be an arm, totally disembodied, hanging awkwardly on the windowsill. The blood covering the walls and the absence of gashes on the corpses indicated that a blade was not used for this abomination, but instead bare hands were used to do the deed.

Corlan felt a slick grip on his ankle, and without thinking looked down. A man with bloody, mangled legs was gripping his ankle with a hand covered in blood. The man's neck was craned upwards to look at Corlan. His face was covered with bruises, and he had a slow trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth.

"…Jarith" He said in a voice far too croaky and soft to be healthy. "Thank… the Fayth. He was… his eyes… so red"

And with that the man's head fell forward with a dull thud, dead. Corlan noticed a hand tattooed to the back of the man's neck, but the fact never registered on him.

Corlan backed out of the doorway, mind numb with shock, and all the while shaking his head slightly in disbelief. His eyes were open, but his eyes seemed disconnected from his brain, and nothing that he saw registered on him. He "opened" his eyes to see the other five looking at him, Auron with his normal calm, piercing gaze, Yuna with what could be called sympathy, Rikku with confusion, Wakka with a grim but otherwise unreadable gaze, and Lulu with anger of all things.

Corlan had brief thoughts of turning and running as far away from that horrible sight as was humanly possible, and Lulu must have been able to read his mind.

"No." She said.

Corlan looked at her blankly; he was still too shocked to really understand what was going on.

"No?" he asked in confusion.

"No!" She repeated. "You cannot run! Do not deny it, I know you are thinking it! You cannot run from us now, you have come through too much with us for you to do that. You think what you just saw was bad? There is much worse to come, you believe me. What will running do but make you remember this more thoroughly? The man… no _thing_ that did this is out there, and running away from this is as good as running away from him. And that will only fuel your fear. The only way to defeat what you have seen now is to come with us, and find whatever did this. No. You have come much too far. And don't forget that the Fayth was expecting you back in Besaid. I feel you have your part to play with us yet."

Corlan still looked at her blankly, but her spiel had knocked a small amount of sense back into his numb brain. "Yes. You are right. Sorry." He said stiffly.

"Ok. Now, we can make it to the temple before nightfall if we leave now. Shut the door Wakka, no one has to see that" Lulu said in a very brisk manner.

As Wakka reached his hand to the doorknob, Auron said quite loudly and abruptly, "Wait! Yuna, Send them."

"Of course. I shouldn't have forgotten." Yuna said, quietly.

Yuna lifted her staff and began to perform a dance that was grim and yet graceful, and beautiful in that. As she danced, pyreflies rose through the roof of the agency and vanished. Wakka shut the door and the companions moved down the path towards the temple.

The companions went on the path over ice and snow. Corlan didn't look where he was going, but instead looked at the ground in front of his feet. He was sure fiends were springing up every now and again, but he never looked up from the floor, and the fiends never bothered him, so he never felt the need to fight.

Corlan kept remembering the details of the scene, especially the small insignificant ones. If someone had asked, he would have been able to draw a diagram of a section of floor covered with splinters, or the exact position of every fine drop of blood on a particular section of wall. But the prevailing image was that of the arm dangling from the windowsill. The blood slowly dripping from the open flesh. The muscles and tendons, all in a tangle at the open wound. The clean whiteness of the bone at the centre. He shuddered remembering it, but the picture kept coming back.

Before he knew it, they were entering the temple, and Corlan automatically entered one of the circular waiting rooms and sat on the seat encircling the room. He looked at the door but nobody had followed him in. _Must have all followed Yuna to the Cloister, _he thought. He didn't know how long he sat on that couch, thinking back to what he had seen in the Travel Agency.

_I'll never be the same again. _He thought, _not after that. No one could. Never the same again. Never the same…that arm…_

Rikku finally poked her head into the room.

"Hey Corlan." She said softly. "Yuna's all done. We're sleeping here tonight."

He nodded and suddenly realised how tired he was. He lay down on the seat, and he saw Rikku lay herself down nearby. Corlan never would have gotten to sleep that night if not for the comfort her presence gave him.


	16. Strength

A/N: Callandor is mentioned in this chapter. Callandor is an idea created by Robert Jordan. I've modified the idea slightly, but the original idea comes from him. No infringement of copyright is intended. This applies for all further mention of Callandor.

**Chapter 16: Strength**

Dreams plagued Corlan's sleep that night. Nightmares. Most were forgotten the moment they ended, but others lingered in his memory.

Two in particular had taken a hold of his mind and would not let go.

In the first, he was surrounded by darkness, and it looked as if he was all alone. But he had that sense that he wasn't alone, that there was something lurking just beyond his field of vision. He looked left and right, up and down, ran one direction, and then another, but the sense would not go away. Eventually he glanced down to find _that arm_ lying on the ground. However, after some inspection, Corlan realised that it wasn't _that arm_ at all. _That arm_ had been a right arm, while this one was a left arm, and this one seemed to be severed by a blade, rather than being torn forcefully from the body. Suddenly, the fingers twitched, and Corlan leapt backwards in surprise. The arm started to claw its way towards Corlan with its fingers. Corlan backed away, the feeling of fear and impending doom rising. Something caught his heel, and he fell backwards in dismay. All he could do was scream as the arm slowly wrapped its fingers around his throat and began to strangle him…

The second was much shorter, but equally as frightening. Corlan was shaking hands with… himself? It didn't matter; it seemed to make enough sense. Shaking hands with himself was making Corlan happier than he had been in a while, but at the same time something seemed wrong about it. All of a sudden, a blade swung down, seemingly out of nowhere. Before Corlan could do anything, the blade connected with his flesh, and cut his arm cleanly off. His other self disappeared, and Corlan grabbed the stump that was his arm. The disembodied part of his arm writhed on the ground as the dream faded in pain and misery.

Corlan bolted upright on the bench that had been his bed for the umpteenth time. He was getting tired of this. The routine of having some forgotten nightmares, followed by one of those two dreams, waking up in a cold sweat, trying to get back to sleep, only to have more nightmares; this routine was getting tiresome. He doubted that any of the sleep he had had could be counted as "rest". Corlan felt as tired as he had when he had first fallen asleep. He turned his head to the left. There, etched on the wall, were the words, "The stone will fall when Callandor is held". He had no idea what the words meant, but he had seen them so many times during the night that they might as well be etched on his mind instead of on the wall

Corlan didn't want to go through the routine again, and his body clock was telling him that it was early enough to be awake. He got off the bench and made his way to the door.

Before he could open the door however, a voice floated through the door.

"What do you think did it?" It was spoken in a whisper, and the door muffled it, but Corlan thought the voice belonged to Lulu. He opened the door a crack and peered through it. Yuna, Lulu, Wakka, and Auron were standing close together, talking in low voices.

"I'd say that was obvious" That was Auron. " For all this talk of 'Death and Evil', we haven't seen any evidence of them actually existing. I say it was one of them"

"Death, probably" Said Wakka.

"So what do we do?" Yuna said. It seemed odd to Corlan that she was deferring to Auron, but Auron _did _seem to be the type to know what to do in this kind of situation.

"Nothing." Replied Auron. " We can't do anything unless they attack us first. So we continue the pilgrimage."

"Agreed"

"Whatcha doin?" Came a voice from behind him.

Corlan jumped in surprise before turning around to find Rikku sitting up on the bench.

"Oh, nothing" He said, as he went to sit next to her.

They sat next to each other in silence after that, fidgeting and shifting around. Corlan looked at Rikku. Looking at her, he realised just how small she was. _She's so small, and yet somehow, she's dealing with this better than I am. How can she be stronger than me?_

Then Corlan remembered what Lulu had said to him yesterday.

"…_the Fayth was expecting you back in Besaid. I feel you have your part to play with us yet." _Her voice said to him from inside his head.

_I have to be strong. The Fayth was expecting me… Somehow, I'm going to help save Spira. I have to be strong for Spira. I have to…_

"You… feeling OK?" Rikku asked tentatively.

Corlan's face split in a fake grin. " Of course! What's there to feel bad about?"

Something about her expression made Corlan think that she knew he was lying.

"You two up yet?" Came Wakka's voice through the door. " C'mon love birds, we're leaving."

"Love birds?" Corlan and Rikku yelled at the same time.

They both barged out of the door to see Wakka's smiling face. "Jus' joking, jus' joking"

"Psssh. Calling us love birds when you and Lulu can't stay away from each other." Was Rikku's snappy reply.

"Me an' Lulu? Me an' _Lulu_? The 'Ice Queen'? Are you kiddin'?"

"Deny it all you want, Wakka. I know it when I see it." Rikku said, tapping the side of her nose.

Wakka just threw his arms up and walked off in a huff.

Corlan and Rikku just looked at each other and laughed.

The group finally left the temple, only to find that the sun hadn't risen yet. Corlan attempted to make a joke about the early hour, but nobody heard him. They made their way over the icy path, defeating the ice fiends along the way. Corlan made more jokes in an attempt to convince the others that he was no longer affected by what he had seen yesterday, but nobody seemed to take notice. He decided it wasn't working, and instead settled for not appearing to be as rattled as he had been yesterday. However, this proved difficult as they drew nearer to the Macalania Travel Agency.

When the Travel Agency came into view everybody reacted in different ways. When Corlan first saw it he thought he might slip into insensibility again. He averted his eyes and immediately started a chant within his mind. _I must be strong. I must be strong. I must be strong…_

After the Travel Agency left his line of vision he immediately felt some tension across his back and shoulder's ease up, as if someone had been watching his back and had now stopped. The group continued the dull journey, back into Macalania woods briefly before arriving in Bevelle._ My home town! How could I forget?_

He ran up to where Yuna and Auron were walking and spoke to them.

"Hey Yuna, Auron, what do you reckon about me going back to my house when we reach Bevelle?"

Seeing his mother again would help relieve his emotional tension. And then he might not have to act so much around everybody.

Yuna looked like she was about to answer but Auron beat her to it. "No. We have to keep our eyes on our goal. No detours, no sidetracking. We all stay on this path until we reach our goal."

Corlan's feelings of happiness, due to the possibility of seeing his mother again, vanished. His facial expression quickly changed from a tentative smile to a dejected frown.

"OK" Corlan said reluctantly.

The group had now left Macalania woods and were making their way down the Highbridge leading up to Bevelle. It came as a surprise to them all when a massive fiend burst out in front of them.

"Evrae?" Said Corlan in confusion. "I thought he died a year ago."

"Not this guy again." Whined Rikku. "Does he ever die?"

"Hey! Stop talking, start fighting!" That was Wakka.

Evrae swung his tail at the party to try to damage them, and stayed as far away as possible so as not to get hit. Corlan's sword was totally useless against him. He resorted to magic instead, casting the Fire spell repeatedly while dodging Evrae's swinging tail. Wakka threw his ball at it, Lulu also cast magic, and Yuna was helping everyone out with White Magic. Rikku attempted to throw grenades at it, but her arm wasn't strong enough for the grenades to do any serious damage to Evrae, so she opted for using healing items on the party. All the while, Auron stood to the side, watching.

Not long into the battle Lulu let out a cry, "Why won't you work!"

Corlan hazarded a glance at her and saw her standing with her arm outstretched, palm facing Evrae. In front of her palm was a weak crackling of electricity, but she didn't seem to be making any form of Thunder spell.

"Work, work, WORK!" She cried, and collapsed onto the ground crying.

Wakka went over to her straight away, kneeling next to her and whispering things in her ear. He then picked her up and moved her away from the immediate vicinity of the battle. _Damn, that's two down now, _thought Corlan.

Not long after that, Corlan's magic power ran out. This was a serious problem, since he was the only one dealing any damage.

"Shit," he said under his breath. "Guys, I'm out of power. Yuna, start summoning. Rikku, come with me, I've got an idea."

Rikku immediately followed. As Evrae's tail began to swing towards him, he raised his sword and brought down a massive blow on it. The tail was pinned beneath his sword. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Valefor swooping around Evrae's head, scratching and pecking.

"Hold his tail down, Rikku."

She obeyed.

"Hold tight, Rikku."

She simply nodded. He removed his sword from Evrae's flesh, and then began hacking at Evrae's tail, swing his blade again and again. Thankfully, Rikku managed to keep Evrae's tail still throughout this process. Eventually, the end of Evrae's tail came off. The beast let out a tremendous howl, and began writhing around even more. Rikku started bucking furiously as Evrae writhed, but miraculously, she managed to keep its tail in position. Corlan took the Soul Reaver and stabbed it into Evrae's exposed flesh.

"Get off Rikku! Yuna! Summon Ixion!" Valefor flew away, and Yuna started the dance to summon Ixion.

"Rikku, give me some Ethers"

Rikku tossed him a couple of vials, and he drank the contents as Yuna finished summoning Ixion and Evrae continued to writhe in pain.

"Yuna, aim at the sword. Rikku, use Thunder Gems."

He followed his own advice and set off a volley of Thunder spells at his sword. Ixion unleashed his Overdrive, and Rikku obediently used Thunder Gems.

Corlan seemed to get caught up in the adrenaline of battle, because the next thing he remembered, the smoke was clearing to reveal the charred remains of Evrae, and Ixion was gone. Evrae promptly burst into a cloud of pyreflies.

Bloodied and weary, Corlan went to pick up his sword before following Rikku and Yuna as they trudged over to where Wakka sat next to Lulu.

"Good job, brudda" Wakka said to Corlan, giving him a pat on the shoulder, which almost knocked Corlan over; he was that tired.

"What's wrong with Lulu?" Asked Rikku.

"Dunno." Was all Wakka said.

"Neither do I!" Lulu yelled. Now she seemed angry. "One second I was totally fine, my magic was working perfectly. The next, nothing. It was like I had lost control of my magic. I didn't have any strength, or any control." She suddenly started weeping, and Wakka quickly wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

Out of the group, only Corlan knew that casting Black Magic required full control of one's body and emotions. He also knew full well that Lulu had perfect control over her body, so that left…. _Her emotions definitely seemed out of control. _He glanced over at Wakka and Lulu again, Lulu seeming to find comfort within Wakka's arms. _I wonder…_

Corlan's thoughts were interrupted by Auron's voice.

"Corlan," He turned around to face Auron. " You… Today you showed me something."

Corlan paused, waiting for Auron to go on. "What's that?"

"You showed me the kind of man you are likely to become… You took control of the battle, you told the others what to do, and they did it. You showed the ability to take control of a situation, and the strength to make yourself superior among those who you consider equals. If you use these abilities correctly, you'll be a leader one day."

Corlan just smiled, not knowing what to say. He had never been able to accept complements well.

Thinking of Auron's praise, Lulu's troubles, and the battle they had just fought and won, the sights of the previous day seemed almost like a distant memory. A distant memory, but not yet distant enough.


	17. Calm

**Chapter 17: Calm**

The tired party slowly trekked down the Highbridge, and soon they were within the city and inside the temple. Since Summoners had lost their purpose a year ago, Bevelle Temple had turned into a free rest house for the weary. Like all of the other temples they had visited so far, the Cloister of Trials remained untouched. A hyperactive attendant greeted them at the entrance.

"Would you like some rooms? How long will you be staying? Is there anything I can do for you? Oh, we have a new machina installed in the rest house. It's called a Shower and you can wash yourselves there. Well?" She said all of this without taking a breath. Corlan barely heard what she said because she had said it so fast.

Yuna replied without missing a step. " Two rooms please, just for the night. And once you've shown them to their rooms, please show them to this 'Shower'. We've had a tough journey and we can use a wash."

"Yes Miss. This way." The attendant said.

Once the attendant had shown them their rooms, Yuna left the group with Auron to complete the Cloister of Trials, and the others followed the attendant to the Shower. The attendant led them to a door with a bench outside. The attendant left and Lulu entered the door without a word. Wakka, Rikku and Corlan thought that she deserved it the most, and so did not challenge her rudeness. They sat on the bench outside and talked of inconsequential things. Lulu came out of the door after some time, and Wakka went in. Lulu left for her room and Rikku and Corlan sat on the bench and continued talking.

Finally Wakka exited, and Corlan entered the Shower room. The room was almost blindingly white. Up on one wall stood a mirror and in another corner stood a cupboard, which held white towels. The only other thing in the room was a curtain surrounding a corner of the room. He took off his clothes, hung them on the hooks on the wall, and stepped behind the curtain. There was a metallic object sticking out of the wall, and a knob on the wall below it. Corlan turned the knob, and water gushed from the pipe.

As the water washed over him, it seemed not only to wash away the grime of his travels, but also something else. The tension he had been feeling for the past day eased up, like a knot in his chest had been untied. As the dirt washed off him, so did the events of the previous day. _No wonder Lulu and Wakka spent so much time in here._

After he felt sufficiently clean, he gathered his clothes and washed them in the shower. He then turned off the water, dried himself and his clothes as well as he could, put them on, and then stepped out of the room.

"Took you long enough!" whined Rikku. Then she started laughing. "What did you do, clean yourself with your clothes still on?"

"No, I just washed them." Corlan said, suddenly feeling much too tired for Rikku's joking mood.

"Alright then." She said, as she shut the door behind her.

Corlan trudged to his room, and collapsed on the bed. It was barely past noon, but the rigours of battle and his lack of sleep the previous night caused him to fall straight asleep.

Corlan awoke, and his jaw cracked as he yawned deeply. He looked around, realising he was alone in his shared room with Wakka.

Realising he had nothing better to do, he went in search of the others. After some searching, he found them in a semi-large room, gathered around a table, eating breakfast. _I slept until morning?_ Corlan thought incredulously.

Wakka looked up at Corlan from his chat with Lulu. "Hey man! Grab a seat and get something to eat! Do you realise you slept for three days straight?"

"Three days? Seriously?" Corlan asked, incredulously

"Nah. But I've always wanted to do that. Ya shoulda seen the look on your face!"

Corlan just laughed and took a seat between Wakka and Auron, but not before light-heartedly punching Wakka on the arm. He immediately started to fill his plate with an assortment of food. He listened to the conversation around him as he ate. Everybody seemed to be overly cheery this morning. In some respects it seemed fake, but in another way it seemed only natural. Everyone had had a soothing shower and a good night's sleep. They had reason to be happier than normal. All except Yuna. She seemed to be her usual secluded self, eating quietly, with her eyes down.

"You okay Yuna?" He asked. He would have normally left Yuna to her thoughts, but something about today had made him speak up.

She looked up, and her taut face cracked in a fake smile. "I'm fine Corlan. Why do you ask?"

Her manner made him remember why he normally left her to her feelings. "No reason."

When everyone had finished their breakfast, they graciously thanked the attendant, before leaving the temple, and then the city. They made the short trek back through Macalania woods, easily killing any fiends they found. Even during battle, the cheeriness of everyone never seemed to dwindle. It seemed that nothing could darken this day.

Soon they reached the Calm Lands. Since Sin's reign, things had changed here. People had realised just how much empty space there was out here. Aspiring businessmen had set up stalls to sell their goods, or an attraction to be admired, or just about anything they wanted to do to make some money. And at the middle of it all, where the sole shop had once stood, a bustling town had started to blossom.

The Calm Lands, however, lived up to its name. Calm.

"Where are all the people?" Rikku wondered aloud.

"Dunno" was all Corlan could say.

The group began their wary trek through the Calm Lands. Every stall and every shop that they passed was unmanned. There were no shoppers perusing the goods. There weren't even any bandits to take advantage of the empty shops.

They cautiously entered the town. It too was empty. The group was mindlessly walking the streets, when to their surprise, they ran into a man. His clothes were ragged and worn, and he looked like he hadn't washed in a week, but other than that, he looked like any man that they might encounter on their journey. He didn't seem to see them.

"Can you tell us what happened here?" Yuna asked with concern.

"The Wet Hand!" The man yelled at the top of his voice, startling some of them. "Wet with blood! The Calm is at an end! An end! Beware the Wet Hand! And the Red Eye! Wet Hand Red Eye! Eye Hand Wet Red! Red Hand…" He trailed off, gibbering like a fool, before scampering into a building.

"What was _that_ all about?" Rikku asked in bewilderment.

"No idea." Said Corlan.

"It was the ravings of a madman." Auron said harshly. "Now we move on to Gagazet."

"Don't you think we should stay here to get the Aeons that are near here?" Asked Yuna.

"No. We must go on. I fear that time is running out." Came Auron's mystic reply

"I just wish I knew what happened here." Yuna said, before setting off towards the mountain in the distance.


	18. To Zanarkand

**Chapter 18: To Zanarkand**

"Brrrrrrrrr"

"Man, it's cold!"

Wakka, Lulu, Corlan and Rikku stood huddled together on the side of the Ronso settlement, trying to rub heat into their arms and legs. Corlan suspected that Lulu was subtly casting a miniature Fire spell at herself to keep warm. He wished he could too, but just like he couldn't make his spells any greater, he couldn't make them any smaller either. He just didn't have the necessary control.

Not far away, Yuna was chatting to Kimahri, and off to the side stood Auron, apparently oblivious to the cold, looking on with his trademark stare.

"Garik Ronso!" Kimahri suddenly yelled. His loud, booming voice had almost made Corlan jump out of his skin.

A Ronso jumped from a nearby cliff, and landed next to Kimahri with a heavy thud. The four of them turned their attention to the two Ronsos.

"Garik. Kimahri leave with Lady Yuna. Garik in charge while Kimahri gone."

The large Ronso nodded, folded his arms, and took up Kimahri's position at the centre of the settlement, overseeing the rest of the Ronso. Yuna walked over to them.

"Let's go."

"Where are we headed, Yunie?" Asked Rikku.

Yuna looked to Auron for an answer.

"To Zanarkand." Was his stony reply.

The group began the rest of the climb up Mount Gagazet. Rikku immediately began a conversation with Corlan.

"… So after we defeated Sin," She was saying, " Kimahri came back here to find any survivors of the Ronso tribe. Now he's their leader!" Corlan just nodded his head, not really interested.

In a complete change of subject Rikku suddenly said, "Wow, look at Yuna. Doesn't she look better?"

Corlan looked. She _did _look better. They were small changes, and anybody that didn't know her wouldn't have been able to mark any difference. The tightness of her eyes was relieved the slightest bit, she stood just a fraction straighter, and she looked just that little bit more relaxed. Small changes, yes, but changes nevertheless.

"It's Kimahri." Rikku commented, "Kimahri's always been like her protector. He's been looking out for her ever since she was a kid. It must make her feel better, having Kimahri by her side again." Corlan just nodded, but now it wasn't in disinterest. He just didn't have anything to say.

Yuna was feeling better, and it reflected in the group. The cheeriness of the morning was back, but now it was for real. Wakka and Lulu talked that little bit more animatedly. Rikku had the tiniest bit more bounce in her step. And Corlan permitted himself to relax a bit more. Small changes, yes, but changes nevertheless. The only person that seemed immune to the aura of happiness was Auron, who wore his usual calm, steady face. And Kimahri… Corlan didn't know Kimahri well enough to know if he was acting any differently. Rikku had said that Corlan probably wouldn't get to know Kimahri any better, simply because he was a close-mouthed guy.

The trek over, and then back down Mount Gagazet was long and hard. Malfunctioning machina and surprisingly powerful fiends continued to show themselves to the group, and they soon grew tired. Even the new addition to their party did not seem to make the battles any easier. But the morale of the group was up, and although it started to waver, it stayed strong until the ruined city of Zanarkand was visible in the distance.

As the sun began to decline, the ground began to level out, until when the sun was just about to set, they were well and truly off the mountain. Corlan spotted an ideal camping spot, at the base of a hill, and just off the side of the path.

"Hey guys!" Corlan called to the rest of the group. "It's getting dark, and this spot looks perfect. Let's camp here."

"Yes, let's." Was Auron's cool reply. As he said it, he glanced surreptitiously at Yuna.

Her mood plummeted, down to a level lower than Corlan had probably ever seen it. But the fact only registered on the edge of his mind; at the forefront was the camaraderie that he shared with his other companions. Lulu kindled a fire with her magic, and they warmed themselves at it while they told jokes and stories. _This is how an adventure is supposed to feel._ He thought. Yuna sat at the fire too, but she did not join in on the fun, and nobody seemed to notice her mood.

One by one, they slowly fell asleep about the fire. Corlan felt his eyes drooping, and lay down on the ground. The last thing he saw before he drifted off to sleep was Yuna's face, bathed in the light of the dying fire, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

They all awoke early the next morning, breakfasted, and then doused the dying embers of last nights fire. The happiness of the previous day had left them in their sleep, and they walked quietly down the path towards Zanarkand. Fiends appeared, and the group disposed of them. They were back to their mechanical journeying.

Today Auron lead the way, being the only one to know their final destination for the time being. He led them into a large, roofed area, into the city that had once been the glorious Zanarkand. Corlan gazed about in wonder. Although the place was a ruin, it had an elegant, and yet dreary beauty. More pyreflies floated about than Corlan had ever seen. For the rest of them, this was not their first time here, but it was for Corlan.

Auron lead them down the single path through the rubble, until it seemed they could go no further. They were in a square room, with a hole in the floor. With some strange magic, an elevator appeared in the centre of the hole in the ground, and the group hopped onto the platform before it descended. They continued in the only direction they could, until they ended up on a platform that seemed to be floating in the middle of nowhere, disconnected from the rest of Zanarkand. In the centre of the platform, a sword jutted out from the stone.

Auron walked over to the sword, and yanked it out of the stone, with what seemed like less force than should have been required. He handed the sword over to Yuna.

"Don't touch the hilt." He instructed. "Only the one who was chosen to wield this weapon can touch the hilt and survive."

"But I thought you were the one who was chosen." Yuna said in confusion.

"The Celestial Weapons have many purposes." Auron explained. "One of those purposes was to aid you all in the defeat of Sin, and I was chosen by Masamune for that purpose. But in this purpose, the final purpose, I am judged unworthy by the blade. Oh, I can still touch it, but it was not meant for me."

"Who is it meant for then?" Yuna asked.

"My heir"

"Your heir? But Auron, you have no children."

At that moment, Auron turned transparent, and he fell to his knees in apparent agony.

"Ah. It seems that the Fayth have decided my time here is up. So listen quickly, and listen well. When I was in the dream Zanarkand, looking over Tidus," everyone except Corlan flinched at the name, " I got… overly friendly with one of the inhabitants. And you all know that something about that place made it more than just a dream. I think that the people in that place are more real than we once believed. I have theorised that each person in the dream Zanarkand was somehow connected to someone in the real Zanarkand. I believe that in the real world, 1000 years past, a part of my soul was imprinted on a child that was conceived at the same time as mine. Although he may not be of my flesh and blood, part of me lived on through that child. Find the descendant of that child. There you will find the one worthy of Masamune. And one more thing. In order to leave the Farplane, I had to give something up. When I return, I will no longer have the right to appear before the living."

"I would be angry at you Auron, for giving that up, but we have no time. Tell us if you know who your heir is!" Yuna was beginning to get frantic.

"I have no certainties, but I believe I felt something when I shook his hand… Ah." And with that one final sigh Auron faded into nothingness, never to be seen again.

"Noooo!" Yuna yelled. She fell to the ground, and scrabbled at the stones where Auron had knelt a moment before. "Tell me! Tell me who the heir is!" She broke down, crying, her many woes flowing freely from her body.

Rikku went over to comfort her, but Yuna was unreceptive. Behind them Wakka exhaled deeply, and they all turned to look at him.

"What do we do now?" He asked.

Everyone was stumped. There was a moment of silence, filled only with Yuna's sobbing in the background, and Rikku's soft, calming words.

Lulu spoke up, "I guess we find Auron's heir. Then we find the Forgotten Aeon. And then we defeat Death and Evil."

"And won't that just be simple." Corlan added, sarcastically.


	19. Celestial Findings

**Chapter 19: Celestial Findings**

Eventually, Yuna stopped crying. She stood up, straightened her skirts, and scrubbed at her eyes.

"Let's go" Was all she said.

Her eyes were red and puffy, and her nose was running slightly, but no one made comment. Corlan decided that he shouldn't either. He had come to realise that, when it came to Yuna's emotions, everyone else knew better than him.

The next destination was the Calm Lands, where Yuna would obtain the Aeons that she had foregone the previous day. The group trudged back down the only path out of the ruin, fending off the fiends that came in their way. Eventually they left the ruins, and began the long climb up and over Mount Gagazet. All in all, the trip out of Zanarkand had been an uneventful one.

Now, Rikku walked with Yuna, talking about something that had them both laughing gently. Whatever Rikku was doing, it was working. Corlan hadn't seen Yuna laugh in a very long time, and it was a relief to see it. However, the laugh that touched Yuna's lips did not touch her eyes at all. That was a worry. As always, Lulu walked alongside Wakka, and Kimahri walked ahead of the group as a sort of front guard. That left Corlan walking at the rear of the pack, all by himself. Yes, it was definitely an uneventful trip.

While they were on Mount Gagazet, where one of the floating ice bridges connected to the hard cliffs of ice, Corlan noticed that his shoe was untied. He paused quickly to lean down and tie up his shoelace.

As he stood up from his kneeling position, his spare X-Potion slipped from his pocket and began to roll towards the edge of the path. He swore and quickly began to scrabble after the vial; the potion would definitely come in handy one day. However, try as he might, the vial eluded his grasping fingers and fell over the edge of the path.

He looked over the edge of the path to see that, luckily, the potion had landed on a ledge, perhaps two metres down from where he stood. The ledge was about two metres long and one metre wide. It wasn't the biggest of ledges, and if he missed it, or put one foot wrong, he would fall for a very long time.

Steeling himself, he clambered down from the path and onto the ledge. Thankfully, the ledge did not appear to be in danger of crumbling.

After retrieving the potion Corlan looked to the left. On a ledge, directly beneath the path he had just been on, stood a large square opening in the rock. He debated with himself for a few moments on the wisdom of entering the opening, but eventually, curiosity prevailed. He jumped over to the other ledge and stepped into the cave.

Upon entering the cave he felt a tingling sensation all along his skin, but he quickly brushed the feeling aside. The first thing he noticed was that the walls were oddly smooth, and the opening was very precisely square. It was almost as if someone had carved this cave into the mountainside. The cave was about two metres tall and just as wide. Corlan briefly noted that Kimahri would have had to hunch over to walk through the opening.

He took a few cautious steps into the cave, and heard a loud grating sound behind him. He whipped around out of surprise, to see a large stone lowering to cover the opening.

"No!"

He lunged for the opening, but the gap was too small for him to slip through. If he tried, he would surely be crushed by the rock. As the rock fell into place, the only light that had lit the cave was shut off. _This was definitely a bad idea_ he thought ruefully.

In the pitch darkness he searched along the edges of the blockade, searching for a secret switch or for some hold he could get on the rock, to try and pry it back open. To his dismay, the rock was as smooth as the walls of the cave. He could get no purchase on that.

Starting to panic, he felt around the walls near to him. After a small while searching, his hand fell on something that felt like a torch. _What are the chances of finding a torch in a place like this?_

Deciding not to question his luck, he lit the torch with a fire spell. The light it gave only reached three metres away, but the mere fact that he had light was enough to lessen his panic slightly.

Bringing the torch over to the blockade, he searched it once more for anything that he may have missed in the darkness. There was nothing, except for the words "The Stone" drawn onto the smooth rock. Upon seeing the words, he remembered something from the night in Macalania Temple. Not the nightmares, although he had thought of those nightmares a few times after that night; thankfully he hadn't had those nightmares again. Not the nightmares, but some words that had been burned into his mind as surely as the nightmares were.

"The stone will fall when Callandor is held," He said to the air, the words echoing down into the cave until they faded.

_What the hell is Callandor? I guess there's only one way to find out._

Before setting out down the tunnel, he surveyed his surroundings one last time. He saw where his torch had been held before he took it. Behind where the torch had been was a tiny little niche in the wall, which held a circular disk. He pried the disk out and looked at it. It had some strange symbols and pictures on it. He didn't know what they meant, or whether the disk was of any importance, but he slipped the disk into his pocket on the off chance. If he got out of here he could probably fetch a pretty price for the disk at a market somewhere. If. He shuddered.

He walked into the cave, torch held high, trying to spot any other irregularities in the stone. He had no idea what Callandor was, for all he knew Callandor was the disk in his pocket, although he had already _held_ the disk so that couldn't be it, but he didn't intend to miss it.

He walked through the cave for what seemed an eternity, the ringing of his footsteps on the stone floor the only thing to keep him company. He was just glad that there weren't any fiends down here. He was unsure whether he would be able to fight them by himself.

The cave wore on, endlessly straight and square, and Corlan began to think he might never leave this place. He fleetingly wondered how long he had been gone, and whether the others had realised he was gone yet. No use worrying about that. He was beginning to get hungry and tired. He walked on.

Some time later, it must have been hours, Corlan sat down on the smooth rock. What he needed was a rest. He checked his spare rations. He had some dried meat and a bit of cheese. Probably enough for one meal, but he had no idea how long he would be down here. He made a mental note to keep more food in his spare rations pouch. He nibbled a bit of cheese and had some of the meat, and stashed the rest of it away.

He sat there, leaning against the wall for a while, telling himself, _I'll only rest for a minute, just a minute. I need to rest my legs for a bit._

But the minute lasted far longer than he intended. Eventually, he found his eyes drooping, and he told himself that a little nap wouldn't hurt anybody. _Just a nap. I'll sleep for a few minutes then get up and get moving._

Corlan awoke to realise that he had slept for much more than 'a few minutes'. His body clock told him that it was the morning, but there was no way to be sure down here. _I've been in here for almost a day. The others must be getting worried by now._

But he couldn't think too much about that. There were more pressing matters at hand, like how on Spira to get out of this cave. He got up, took a few more nibbles of food, and set off down the cave. About an hour into the cave, he spied a circular recess in the wall. Remembering the disk from yesterday, he realised that this hole was remarkably similar to the recess he'd found the disk in. He just shrugged and decided to try his luck.

The disk fit perfectly, and as soon as the disk clicked into place, a section of wall started to open out like a door. If he hadn't seen the door open with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed there had been a door there; the wall had appeared as smooth there as in any other part of the cave. Corlan laughed in spite of himself. He'd finally found something. He stepped into the room that the door had previously concealed. It was not a large room, and it had absolutely nothing in it. The walls and floor were as smooth as the walls of the outside, and just as angular. On the wall directly opposite the door stood another circular recess in the wall, with another disk in it. This disk was similar to the first, but the symbols were slightly different.

He removed the disk from the wall and left the room. He then retrieved the original disk from the door. The door immediately began to swing back closed and thudded back into place. When Corlan looked at the wall, there was no evidence of a door ever having been there except for the circular recess.

He looked down at the two disks in his hands. He was beginning to think that the disks were far more important than he had once thought.

Pocketing the two disks, Corlan continued his journey down the tunnel, eyes peeled for any other recesses on the walls. He walked and walked, but didn't find any other recesses. He had his eyes trained so hard on the walls that's he was almost upon it before he saw it. About twenty metres ahead of him, emitting its own bright light, was a sword, apparently floating in mid-air, rotating slowly. The sword appeared to be made of shining crystal.

He ran toward the floating blade, and stopped a metre short. Looking beyond the blade, he noticed that he had reached the end of the tunnel. Panting eagerly, he reached out to grab the hilt of the blade. As soon as his hand got too close, it crumpled into a fist too tight for him to open. When he withdrew his hand, the muscles of his hand loosened, and he was able to open his hand again.

He frowned at the sword in confusion. Then he noticed that the blade had a circular recess in the middle of the cross guard. The recess was hard to pick out since the sword seemed to be made of glass, but luckily Corlan had managed to see it. He removed one of the disks from his pocket and reached out to place it in the recess. His hand didn't crumple. That was a good sign. He waited for the sword to rotate enough, and then placed the disk in the recess. As soon as the disk left his hand, his hand crumpled up into a fist again. The one disk wasn't enough. He reached into his pocket, took out the other disk, and placed it in the other recess on the sword, which was opposite the other recess.

As the disk clicked into place, whatever had kept the sword floating vanished, and it fell out of the air. Luckily he caught it before it hit the ground; he didn't want to risk the sword shattering on the rock.

As soon as his hand had grasped the hilt of the blade, he knew. This was Callandor. In the distance he heard a faint click. He hefted the blade. As soon as he had held it, he had felt a connection with it. He knew this was one of the few swords he could wield. The connection he felt with Callandor was similar to what he had felt when he first held the Soul Reaver. Callandor appeared to be made of glass, but when he tested the edge against his thumb, it was as sharp and hard as steel, and the hilt did not slide in his hand at all.

He took a step backwards, and the world shifted around him.

He looked around. He was in the Macalania Woods. But this was different. He was standing above it, looking down from above. Beneath his feet he saw glowing whiteness. He was standing on that glowing white path.

Just near him he could see a glowing white ball of… something. On instinct he lifted Callandor up to it. A glowing light suffused him. All he could see was himself and Callandor, and beyond that… just whiteness. Corlan watched Callandor as the two disks seemed to melt into glass and become a part of the sword. The whiteness slowly vanished.

Corlan laughed. He could feel raw power surging through him. His magical power increased beyond belief, and he could feel the extra Overdrive energy in his body increase. And all of that power was flowing through him from Callandor.

He looked down. A fiend was walking through the woods.

"Firaja!" Corlan yelled.

Flame enveloped the fiend, and in a matter of moments it crumbled into ash. Corlan just laughed. He spied another fiend. He pushed his Overdrive energy into Callandor, and the blade glowed.

"Crystal Rain!"

Shards of crystal fell from the sky, stabbing into the fiend, so many that in moments the fiend lay on the ground, dead.

All Corlan could do was laugh as he stepped forwards. The world shifted around him.

He was back in the tunnel. It would take another day to get out of here. Wait. No it wouldn't. He had Callandor. With Callandor he could do anything.

He reached out with his magic and pushed against the air. In an explosion of speed he rocketed forward through the air. After a few minutes of flight he landed. He repeated the process three more times, and at the end of the last burst he was a few steps away from the exit. He started laughing again. With Callandor he could do anything.

Corlan stepped out onto the ledge, and felt the same tingling sensation as he had when he had first entered this place. Again he brushed the feeling aside. He hopped over to where his X-Potion had first dropped. It would be tough to climb back onto the path. But why bother? He had Callandor.

He used a diminished version of what he had done in the tunnel to shoot himself up three metres into the air. He landed softly on the path. Corlan looked up at the sun. Something about Callandor made him feel more in tune with nature. From the position of the sun he gathered that it was a few minutes after the time he had entered the cave, on the _same day_ that he had entered it. Somehow, he had only spent about 5 minutes within the cave. But right now he didn't care.

He ran down the path to catch up with his companions. On the path he ran into a man wearing a dark brown cloak, his face shrouded in a hood. Somehow, the man seemed familiar to him, as if Corlan had glimpsed him from the corner of his eye a long time ago. But however he racked his brain, he couldn't place this man.

"Hello, Corlan" The man said in a soft voice. A buzzing came into Corlan's ear, but he ignored it.

"How do you know my name?"

"That's not important. What is important is –"

"Who are you?" Corlan interrupted.

"It is of no consequence. Now, as I was saying…"

As the man continued, the buzzing in Corlan's ears grew. He shook his head to get rid of it, but the buzzing got louder and louder until he could barely hear. A darkness started to edge into his eyesight, and slowly enveloped his vision. And all the while, something deep within him, something that had grown as soon as he had touched Callandor, and the same thing that had been in control of him ever since he had touched the blade, started to pulsate and grow. This thing enveloped his mind, his body… everything.


	20. Travels

A/N: Just in case you get confused, the next two chapters are from Rikku's point of view. Onward!

**Chapter 20: Travels**

Rikku parted from Yuna on Yuna's request. Part of her was reluctant, but the other part of her couldn't have asked for more. Yuna was so different now. The last pilgrimage, Yuna had at least laughed a little. There had been some good times. Now, Yuna's laughter and smiles were completely fake. Rikku knew it was because of the absence of Tidus, everybody did, but sometimes, Rikku wished Yuna would just get over him. It had already been a year.

Right now, Yuna was walking by Kimahri's side, and, as always, Wakka and Lulu were walking together as well. Rikku knew something was cooking between the two of them, and wondered whether they would ever get up the courage to admit their feelings to one another. The way they danced around the subject sometimes frustrated her like nothing else.

After looking at Yuna, Kimahri, Wakka and Lulu, she realized that Corlan was missing. The kid was pretty moody, and sometimes he was just plain boring, but he was better company than any of these other oldies.

_Argh, I gotta stop thinking of him as 'The kid'!_ She thought.

She'd thought of him this way, in her mind at least, ever since he'd turned up in Besaid, thunderstruck at the sight of them. In truth he was just a year younger than she was. The first time Rikku had actually realised this was when she'd caught him eying her at the Blitzball stadium. Something in the way he had looked made her realise that this was no kid. Thinking of the incident again brought a smile to her lips. She'd never before caught a guy admiring her, and it made her happy to know that Corlan had thought of her in that way, even though she had later acted all cool and collected about the whole thing.

_I wonder where he is?_

She turned her head at the sound of footsteps running down the mountain. It was Corlan. His long brown hair was flowing out behind him, and for some reason he seemed to be laughing. That was odd. Rikku had to admit that the guy was pretty good looking. She'd sometimes even found herself checking him out, much in the same way he had her. While he wasn't looking of course. His face was reminiscent of Tidus'. When she'd first seen him, she'd almost thought it _was_ Tidus. But the more time she had spent with him, the less he looked like Tidus, and more like himself.

Corlan flashed her a grin as he ran past. That was also odd. The guy had never been this happy, only when they had first started out, but something about Yuna's moods had squashed that. She wondered why he was grinning and laughing like that. He stopped next to Yuna.

"Hey, Yuna! I was wondering… d'you reckon I can go see my mum again? I know, I know, 'We all stay on this path until we reach our goal,'" He said, in a fair imitation of Auron, "but you guys still have to find the Forgotten Aeon, right? And you don't even know how long that will take. I figure it won't really hurt anybody, and you guys don't really need me that badly, do you. You can come get me when you need to. What do you say?"

"Sure thing Corlan." Yuna replied. "Go see your mum. If we need you, we'll come get you."

"Thanks a lot Yuna!" He said, before running off in the direction of the Calm Lands. Without even a goodbye.

_That's a bummer_ Rikku thought. Now she wouldn't have anyone to talk to. The next few days were going to get pretty boring.

At least that explained why he had been so happy. Sort of. Something about the way he had acted wasn't normal, but she couldn't put her finger on it, and it wasn't just the fact that he was overly-happy.

The group walked the rest of the way down Mount Gagazet, and then made a beeline for the Cavern of the Lost Fayth. The fiends inside the cavern were slightly harder without Corlan around, but they all made do. In the end, the loss of Corlan didn't really make much difference. They were all still a fiend-killing machine.

Within the cavern they bartered for the Aeon, Yojimbo, which cost them a lot more money than they should really have been handing out. At least Yojimbo was as good as they got; he was definitely no waste of money. From there they walked across the Calm Lands to the Remiem Temple. The Calm Lands had been just as devoid of life as before. At least the crazy old man hadn't ambushed them again. Within the temple, Yuna attained the Magus Sisters.

From there they walked – _walked!_ – all the way back to Besaid. Rikku spent most of the trip trying to convince Yuna to let her call up Cid, but Yuna refused, saying that she 'felt like we should be walking'. Whatever that meant. All in all, it was a pretty boring trip, just like she'd predicted. They didn't even face any boss fiends, which was odd; they'd found enough of them on their way to Gagazet, why should they just decide to disappear?

When they arrived in Besaid, Yuna hired some boats and they rowed – _rowed!_ – to the Baaj Temple. Within the temple Yuna got the Aeon, Anima. Now there was just one more left. The Forgotten Aeon. Whatever the hell that was.

In total, the trip from Gagazet to the Baaj Temple had taken them about two weeks, and what a boring two weeks it had been. When they arrived back in Besaid, they found out that Cid had turned up in his airship to 'check up on his only daughter', as he had put it.

_Great timing, Dad!_

She told Cid about everything that had happened since Corlan had turned up in Besaid. At the end of it Cid was thunderstruck, but he then admitted to receiving some reports of strange goings-on in the Calm Lands region, which fit in with Sin being reborn in the area. Cid assured them that he'd have his best guys on the ground, keeping an ear open for anything suspicious goings-on in the area.

The group spent the next couple of days pondering their next destination. They had to figure out where the Forgotten Aeon was. After a while, Rikku just gave up thinking. It was called the Forgotten Aeon – it had probably been forgotten for a reason. It was on this day that Cid called them all onto the Airship. Apparently, one of his guys had heard something.

"OK Rikku, you know this guy Corlan that you told me about?" He said in that odd voice of his, as if he was screaming all the time.

"Yeah, what about him?" Rikku asked.

"Well apparently, in Bevelle, there's this guy that's claiming to be the Emperor of Spira. They say that as soon as he turned up, pretty much everyone in Bevelle knelt to him. Of course, some people rose up against him, including his own mother they say, but he crushed them all by himself. He defeated an entire army single-handedly! Now everyone in Bevelle kneels to him, most out of fear no doubt, and they say he kills anyone who disobeys him. They say he sometimes kills people who haven't even done anything."

"Well, that is terrible news, but right now we have bigger fish to fry." Replied Yuna. "This 'Emperor' will cause trouble for sure, but not as much as Death and Evil will if we don't stop them soon. And what does this have to do with Corlan anyway? Was he hurt in the battle or something? Has he been killed?"

"No, that's not it. The reports say that Corlan is… the name of the Emperor."


	21. The Emperor, The Devil, and The Heir

**Chapter 21: The Emperor, The Devil, and The Heir**

Everyone was on Cid's Airship in a matter of minutes. It had taken no more than a few seconds of discussion to decide that even the remote possibility that the Emperor was Corlan was enough to increase the importance of the matter.

Rikku paced back and forth in the cockpit of the Airship, endless questions buzzing around in her mind.

_Could it be Corlan? How many people must there be named Corlan? Could it be anyone else? Why would Corlan do such a thing anyway? Why?_

She quickly put an end to the questions as they landed in Bevelle. They would be answered soon enough.

They all disembarked and quickly made their way to the Temple, where they assumed this 'Emperor' would have put his throne. As they walked down the Highbridge, the aftermath of a battle was clearly evident. The sturdy stone walls that lined the walk were now cracked, and in some places, the wall had given way completely, leaving only a pile of rubble and a gaping hole that revealed more of the damaged city. Even the ground that they walked on was cracked and uneven. Not only that, but now beggars lined the Highbridge, men and women who had been stripped of everything because of the battle. The beggars had congregated here, hoping to get some gold from generous foreigners, but a line of Bevelle guards held them away from the walkway.

The sight made new questions bubble up in Rikku's mind. _How can one man have the power to do all this? How can that man be Corlan?_ She quickly quashed the thoughts.

The sight of the damage done should have appalled her; nothing like this had happened to anyone since Sin had been defeated a year ago, not on this scale. But it didn't. There were more important matters at hand. These people and their city would have to wait. But she still couldn't help the feeling that worse would happen if they didn't deal with this 'Emperor', or with Death and Evil. She shuddered.

Soon, they reached the entrance to the Temple. Two guards stood to either side of the door, each holding a large machina weapon. Thankfully, neither of them made a move to block their way as they entered the Temple. They had had a plan for getting into the Temple if someone had tried to stop them, but it would have caused a lot more trouble.

Quickly, they made their way to the centre of the Temple, where they believed the throne room would be. After searching for hours, going up and down elevators and criss-crossing the many halls of the Temple, they finally reached the outside of the throne room. Again, two men guarded the door with large machina weapons. As they made to enter the door, the two men stopped them.

"Nobody enters here without an appointment with the Emperor." One of them said. Rikku was not sure which one had spoken; maybe they both had.

"But it is very important! We must –"

"Nobody enters here without an appointment with the Emperor." One of them said again, cutting Yuna off.

"Not even the High Summoner Yuna?" Said Lulu, angrily.

"Nobody enters. Those are our orders."

Rikku saw Kimahri and Wakka share a look above the heads of the others. The plan was about to come into action. At least these two were the only guards in sight. In a flash of movement, both guards were down on the floor, unconscious. Wakka painfully rubbed a fist, while Kimahri stood over the body of his victim calmly.

"Oh, stop whining." Lulu said to Wakka as she opened the door to the throne room.

Rikku's worst fears came to life. It was one thing to believe that Corlan was the Emperor, but it was another thing entirely to see it with her own eyes. He lounged in a massive chair, a throne, with one arm lazily draped over the one of the throne's arms. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his normal blue-and-white clothes were gone. In their place was a blue coat, trimmed in gold, with red swirls on the collar. He also had a red cape attached to his shoulders, which was barely visible in his sitting position. His pants were long and brown, and looked comfortable yet expensive. And in his hand, the one draped over the throne arm, he held a sword that glittered in the light, seemingly made of glass. He was the very picture of an 'Emperor'. Rikku was just surprised that he wore no crown.

Kneeling before the throne was a haggard looking man, pleading with Corlan. Neither of them seemed to notice their entrance.

"Please, Highness. The beggars need food and money, or they will die! They are your people, Highness. Please spare a thought for your people, Highness." The kneeling man was saying. His voice sounded desperate, and it sounded as if this wasn't the first time he had asked this of Corlan.

"We will see." Was Corlan's cold reply.

"Thank you, Highness, than-" But the man never got to finish his thanks. Abruptly, the man burst into flames. Rikku was shocked to stillness, and before any of them had time to react, the man had been reduced to a pile of ash. His brief screams still echoed in Rikku's mind.

"Why, Corlan? Why would you do something like this?" Yuna's voice was full of anguish.

Corlan lifted his gaze from the pile of ashes, and a smirk spread across his face. "Like what?" He said coolly.

"This!" Yuna's wild hand gesture took in the pile of ashes, the throne, and the room itself.

"Do you want to know? Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes!" Yuna was beginning to sound hysterical. Rikku wasn't sure she didn't feel the same way. _Why would Corlan have done this? How?_

"Have you never felt that your existence on Spira was not meaningless, not some infinitesimal speck on the face of this world, but that somehow, you may just be important to Spira's destiny, Spira's story? Have you never felt that your story would be retold, again and again, echoing throughout Spira's future? I know that that is a reality for you, Yuna, but somehow, deep down inside of me, I knew that it would be a reality for me too. Somewhere in the pits of my mind I knew that people a long time from now would hear the name Corlan, and remember something amazing, something great. But how can that be when I am not even the main character in my own story? I was a follower, blindly listening to whatever was told to me, following at your heels like a brainless lapdog. How could I be remembered as a part of Spira's story, if I couldn't even be remembered as a part of my own? So you see, that is why I am sitting here on this throne, so that I will be remembered, so that I will be a part of Spira's story. Here, sitting on this throne, I can do great things. I can do _any_thing. With Callandor in my hand, and this throne beneath me, I can right wrongs, I can overcome barriers nobody has ever dreamed of breaking, and I can bring wonder to Spira! Do not tell me that that is not worth the lives of these people, the people that would stand in the way of the rise of Spira! Any amount of deaths would be justified by the wonder I can bring to this world!"

"No!" Yuna was hysterical know, or close to it. "That man did nothing! He stood in no one's way! How can you say that, Corlan!"

Almost on top of Yuna, Lulu was yelling angrily, "What kind of fool reasons are those! For remembrance! Do you really think that's worth all of this?"

Wakka was saying something too, but his words were drowned out by Lulu and Yuna's words. Rikku was still too stunned to think far beyond the fact that Corlan had killed that innocent man so quickly and cruelly. And throughout the yelling, Corlan still wore that smirk on his face.

"Who has done this to you?" Yuna was yelling. "Who? I can't believe that this is all your doing! You were a good man! Who is controlling you!"

"You always were a sharp one, Yuna" The soft voice sliced through the yelling, cut it off. A man had emerged from a door behind the throne, and nobody had noticed him over the sound of yelling.

"Seymour! You were dead! You died with Sin!" Yuna yelled. It sounded as if she were trying to convince herself that the man in front of her was a figment of her imagination. Rikku wished she could do the same, but somehow she knew that he was entirely real.

_Seymour._ She shivered, remembering all of the destruction he had caused. _At least Corlan was not responsible. Not entirely…_

"You really think something like Sin can truly die? He is tied too strongly to Spira's story. In it's own way, Spira needs Sin to survive. After all, there is no such thing as a story with no villain." Seymour started laughing in that soft way of his, and it chilled them all to the bone as it had so many times before.

"Why Corlan then? Why him? Why not someone else?"

"You will be surprised how easy it is to identify someone who is tied to Spira's story. Everyone here in this room is. Very strongly. Yes, even Corlan. He was the only choice, really. He was the youngest, the most sheltered, and the most malleable. And he was surprisingly easy to overwhelm. There is more evil in his heart than you believe. A lot more. A 'good man' indeed." Seymour put a heavy emphasis on the word 'good'. "But… he grows weak. His mind and body were strong, before, but they have become weak, even with that sword in his hands. And it seems he has outlived his use."

Suddenly, Corlan fell forward, out of the throne. Rikku wanted to rush to his side, but she knew it was foolish, with him lying right at Seymour's feet.

"Why are you telling us this?" Yuna sounded sceptical.

"The way I see it, you're all dead anyway. Spread the word if you wish, there is nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Well, as long as you're answering questions, what was the purpose of all this?" Yuna asked.

"Now that's a good question! I don't think you'll even begin to understand the reasons but… the sword was one," He gestured to the glittering glass sword that had skittered across the floor. "And the other… Ah, here he is. What impeccable timing."

They all turned to the door through which they had entered. To Rikku's surprise, it was Barthello who had entered. But he was barely recognisable. He had a mad glint in his eye, and he was frothing at the mouth. His whole body, his hands especially, were smeared with blood. Some of it seemed long dry, but most of it appeared fresh.

He made towards them, eyes glinting red, teeth gnashing in expectation. Involuntarily, Rikku took a step back, before she realised that Barthello had stopped. His eyes were fixed on Seymour. He suddenly let out a roar, and a spirit streaked above their heads. From the brief glimpse that Rikku had managed to get, the spirit looked like… Sin. The spirit flew into Seymour.

Seymour began yelling, "The power, oh the power! I won't even need Callandor with this much power!"

At the same moment Barthello fell to his knees, wailing, "It's my fault! Dona's dead! No… It's your fault. Die!"

"Farewell." Seymour was saying. "I'll leave you with a parting gift." And with that, he was gone, and in his place were more fiends than Rikku had ever seen in one place.

Rikku and her companions instantly shot into battle. Rikku's primary concern was Corlan; right now he was unable to defend himself, and she couldn't have forgiven herself if anything had happened to him. In moments, it seemed, the battle was over. It must have been longer, but she couldn't figure out where the time had gone. Too much was flying through her head for that. Corlan. Seymour. Sin. Death. Evil. Too much. With everything flying around her head, two thoughts seemed to crash into each other, and suddenly, something that the Fayth had said made perfect sense. She laughed at the simplicity of it.

All heads turned to her questioningly. She tried to explain, "Well Death's Sin, but we never figured out what Evil was. And then I remembered something I had said before. 'Seymour was so frightening. He was so evil.' Do you see? Seymour is Evil. And what do you get when you put the words 'Death' and 'Evil' together? 'Devil'. Remember what the Fayth said? 'When Evil and Death share bodies, the Devil that results cannot be destroyed.' That's what it means."

There was a moment of silence while everyone contemplated the meaning of the revelations. Most of what Rikku had told them they had already figured out, but the significance of the combination of the words 'Death' and 'Evil' seemed to give the Fayth's words deeper meaning. The silence was broken by sobs. They all turned around. It was Barthello, obviously weeping over his loss of Dona. And in his hand…

"Barthello, how is it possible that you are able to hold Masamune?"


	22. Rest

A/N: OK, that's the end of Rikku's POV. Now it's back to Corlan.

**Chapter 22: Rest**

Corlan spent the better part of a month lying in a tent in Besaid, regaining his strength. The tent was meant for Rikku; the construction of it had finished while they were on their journey. But Rikku had relinquished the tent to him, saying that she'd stayed with Lulu for over a year already, and a bit longer wouldn't hurt.

When Corlan had woken, it had been Wakka sitting by his side. Wakka said that he had been unconscious for two weeks, and this time it was no joke. Wakka had quickly gathered everyone else, and they had all told him the news of the past weeks. First and foremost was the fact that they still had no idea what or where the Forgotten Aeon was. They told him of how he had been controlled by Seymour, how the spirit of Sin had merged with Seymour and now there was some 'Devil' roaming around Spira. They had found Auron's heir. It was a hulking man named Barthello. Corlan had only seen this guy once, through the drapes that covered the entrance to the door, and boy was he huge. Apparently, Barthello was also the person that Sin had overtaken upon his rebirth. Corlan no longer had to wonder how Death had managed to do what it had done at the Macalania Travel Agency barehanded. Remembering the scene again made him shiver. _The arm…_

Rumours began to waft down to Besaid, of massive atrocities occurring all over Spira. The rumours claimed that it was just one man. Most rumours said that the man was the Emperor, though others claimed that it was just some mystery man. Other rumours that the Emperor had vanished from Bevelle only bolstered the rumour that the mystery man was the Emperor. But the rumours didn't matter to Corlan and the others; they knew for a fact that it wasn't the Emperor – Corlan had been the Emperor – but that it was Seymour who was causing this trouble. If only they knew how to stop him.

Often Corlan tried to dredge up memories of the time he had spent as Emperor, but he only ever came up with tidbits. Before he had woken up, the last thing he could remember with any clarity was placing the second disk in the glittering sword. After that, everything was hazy. He remembered somehow being in Macalania Woods, and a blinding white light. Beyond that blinding light his memories weren't even hazy; they simply didn't exist. To him it had felt like he had been transferred from the brightness of that light, to incredible darkness, and then to the inside of this tent. He had managed to retrieve some memories of his time as Emperor, but they were more than hazy, like a dream long forgotten and remembered again. In fact, after the blinding light, the only memory that was clear enough to make out was of his mother. Of him killing his mother. That thought had made him cry for days on end. Sometimes he wondered how he had been able to stop crying at all.

Right now he was still abed, two weeks after he had first woken up. He was steadily regaining his strength. In a few more days he would be as right as rain. At the moment, when he tried to stand, his knees shook, but when he started walking it was easier to keep himself upright. In a few more days he would be able to walk without any trouble.

The hut he was in was very plain. Right now all there was in it was this bed and two chairs. Across one of the chairs was the glittering sword – Callandor it was called. When he had related the tale of how he had found it to the others, they had known exactly what it was. A Celestial Weapon. It turned out that those disks he had found along the way had been the Neptune Crest and Sigil. He avoided touching it as much as he could; even the stories of what he had done with it frightened him, let alone his own clouded memories. In the other chair sat Rikku. They had claimed that someone had always been by his bedside when he had been unconscious, either Yuna, Rikku, Lulu or Wakka, and Kimahri as well when it was Yuna's turn. But after he had woken, the visits had become more rare.

"So what are you going to do when this is all over?" Rikku was saying.

"I honestly don't know. I would go home but…" There was no home to go back to now that his mother was dead. He still found it hard to wrap his head around the fact. "I might stick around here in Besaid. There's not very much more of Spira left for me to see… At least I got my adventure."

"And what an adventure it's been."

"You can say that again!" When Corlan had left Bevelle, his plan had been to see his hometown, maybe look at Kilika, spend a few nights in Luca, then maybe travel up to the Calm Lands to see what it was like. He had never expected something of this kind of proportion. "But you were on Yuna's first pilgrimage as well. This adventure couldn't have held anything new for you."

"True, the first time did have a lot more excitement, a lot more twists and turns, but I suppose the second time wasn't without its… perks." She got a faraway look in her eye for a few moments, and then shook her head. Corlan couldn't even begin to fathom what she had been thinking about. _Perks?_

"So what are you going to do when this is all over?"

"I dunno. I might just stay here in Besaid, like you. It's what I've been doing for the past year, and I've even got my own hut now. But maybe I'll go to Bikanel. I'll bet you haven't been there. Dad said he's been rebuilding Home, so I might go there to check it out. Maybe you should come."

"Maybe… but a desert doesn't seem to be the best place to celebrate a victory."

"Hey! That's my desert you're talking about."

"Oh, so sorry. We can't have anyone badmouthing _your_ desert, can we?"

"Shut up, Corlan!"

Corlan started laughing. After he stopped, there was a moment of silence, where neither of them really had anything to say. Corlan allowed his thoughts to wonder. Right now, he had an overwhelming urge to play blitzball. He would give anything to be underwater, playing good hard blitzball like he had at Luca. But he couldn't right now anyway, not in the state he was in. He was sure that even if he was in a state to play, he wouldn't be able to. Right now the priorities were Seymour and the Forgotten Aeon. Thinking about Luca, the second biggest city in Spira, made him wonder: _Why doesn't it have a temple? Bevelle had one… Hold on._ Several of the thoughts that he had had suddenly surged together. _Underwater. City. Temple. Forgotten Aeon._ Suddenly, he gasped.

"Rikku! I know where the Forgotten Aeon is!"


	23. A Chapter Ends

A/N: So, this is the last chapter… I hope you've had as much fun reading as I have writing. Please don't forget to drop a review. And just so you know, there's going to be a sequel to tie together all the unanswered questions in this one. I've got all the ideas, so now all I have to do is find a way to string them together in a way that makes sense… the point is, it could be a while before anything is ready. I don't know if the sequel will approach the length of this one, but we'll have to see. OK, here comes the final chapter…

**Chapter 23: A Chapter Ends**

Corlan was up and running before he had finished speaking. He could hear Rikku running behind him.

He called over his shoulder, "Go get the others! I'll go to Yuna!"

He heard her running footsteps begin to fade as she ran in a different direction, and Corlan was just glad that she hadn't questioned him. He hadn't told her anything yet.

Soon, he was in the Temple, in one of the waiting rooms to the side of the entrance to the Cloister. Yuna was there, lying down on one of the benches, apparently wrapped in thought. She bolted upright as he crashed into the room.

"Yuna! I think I know where the Forgotten Aeon is!"

"Where, Corlan, where?" As soon as she had heard his words, she had sat up even straighter, hanging on his every word. At this point, Rikku charged into the room, followed by Wakka, Lulu, and Kimahri.

"Ok, hear me out. Something got me thinking about that underwater city in the Moonflow. What if there was a Temple in that city before it sank? It'd make sense if there was a Temple there, for the Aeon there to be called Forgotten, coz nobody's been down there in over a thousand years!"

"Geez, it's just that simple, eh?" Wakka said. "I can't believe we didn't think of that sooner!"

"I think you're right, Corlan." Yuna said. "It makes perfect sense. Rikku, call your father, we need to be at the Moonflow as soon as possible."

"Aye aye, Cap'n Yunie!" Rikku gave a mock salute before heading out of the room, speaking Al Bhed into a device she had taken from her pocket.

"Gather your things, people. We leave as soon as Cid gets here."

Corlan nodded and headed for Rikku's tent. As soon as he reached it, he collapsed onto the bed. In all the excitement, he'd forgotten just how tired he was. _No time to be weak. No time._ With an effort he hoisted himself off the bed. As quickly as he could, he strapped the Soul Reaver to his back, and he hesitantly picked up Callandor and slipped it into the scabbard someone had found for it. He attached the scabbard to his belt. He quickly scraped together the rest of his belongings – some spare Potions, a bit of gold, and a rations pouch that was now three times more full than it once had been - and walked out of the tent.

The others were all waiting in the centre of the village. To Corlan's surprise, Barthello was brooding in the background, Masamune strapped to his back. After Corlan thought about it, Barthello's presence really shouldn't have been a surprise, after all, he was Auron's heir, and the rightful owner of Masamune. They needed him to defeat Seymour. They all made their way to the outskirts of the village, where Cid's Airship was already waiting. Quickly, they all boarded the Airship.

As soon as everyone was on board, Yuna began to brief Cid on the situation.

"Cid, you know more or less what's been going on over the last few months." Yuna began. "Well, we think we know where the Forgotten Aeon is. Here's the plan. We need to get to the Moonflow right now. Rikku was telling me about a new invention that you have for breathing underwater; we're going to need one of those for each of us before we get to the Moonflow. Now, we don't know how long we'll be under, so while we're down, we need you to position your people in all of the major centres in Spira, and that means any place with more than three people. They need to keep an ear and an eye open for any more of these acts of violence we've been hearing about. Once we resurface, you'll be waiting here, ready to pick us up. We'll all stay aboard the Airship, waiting for word from one of your men, and once we get the word, we'll be heading straight to the source of it. You understand?"

"Yes, Yuna." Cid said in a gruff voice.

"Good. I'm sorry that I have to order you around like this, but…" Yuna truly did sound sorry.

"Don't you mention it! You did it with our help last time, and we're not backing down this time either!" Cid replied in that same gruff voice.

Yuna responded with a nod, and everyone dispersed about the cockpit. Corlan took the opportunity to introduce himself to Cid, but Cid claimed that he already knew who he was, saying that he had been the one who had taken Corlan from Bevelle to Besaid so quickly.

It took them a matter of moments to reach the Moonflow. Corlan briefly wondered why they hadn't used the Airship to travel around Spira. Corlan supposed it may have been the same reason that the others had walked all the way back to Besaid from the Calm Lands; that Yuna had just had a 'feeling'. Before they landed they had all been handed 'Breathers' as Cid called them, with the instruction to "put it in your mouth and breathe through it".

The Airship was hovering about ten metres above the surface of the Moonflow. They had three lights, and had decided to give them to the three strongest swimmers; Corlan, Wakka and Rikku. Wakka would be leading them into the city, followed closely by Yuna. Rikku would be somewhere in the middle, and Corlan would bring up the rear.

Everyone put their Breathers into place, and jumped off the Airship into the Moonflow one by one. At first, it was awkward breathing through the Breather. Corlan had almost choked trying to breathe through it, but after a moment it came more naturally, and soon it seemed is if it were entirely natural that he was breathing underwater. Wakka lead them down towards the city, and the closer they got to the city, the darker it got. Soon, Corlan had to turn on his light in order to see Lulu, who was swimming in front of him.

After a few more minutes of swimming, they were finally weaving around massive buildings. _So this is what the ancient machina cities looked like._ The only other machina city he had been to was Zanarkand, and that had been in ruins. But this city had been perfectly preserved by the water, unlike some of the remnants of Ancient Bevelle that he had seen, which had been severely rusted. Everywhere he looked, there was something that made him wonder. What were those posts lining the walkways? What were those strange pictures hanging on the sides of the buildings, with equally strange writing on them? The writing appeared to be the same as the symbols that had been on the Neptune Crest and Sigil. That was odd. Corlan wondered how there could ever be enough people to fill these massive buildings, he wondered how some of the signs outside of the buildings could still be glowing. He wondered a million other things.

There he spotted a block of houses that looked incredibly similar to the house he had grown up in in Bevelle, and there he spotted a blitzball stadium. Some of the things Corlan saw would not have been out of place in Bevelle, but other things were beyond anything he could have ever imagined. Abruptly he wondered how Wakka and Yuna could possibly know what they were looking for. Corlan realised that they had probably already been down here for an hour.

Just on cue, Wakka and Yuna began swimming towards a building that looked suspiciously like the Temple in Besaid. Like most of the other buildings in this city, this one was completely intact and undamaged. Within, the Temple had the usual format; two paths leading to waiting rooms, and a staircase leading towards the Cloister of Trials. Solving the Cloister involved shifting the positions of spheres. Corlan just stood by – _floated_ by – as Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, and occasionally Barthello moved back and forth switching the positions of the spheres.

At last, the final door opened, and Yuna entered the Chamber of the Fayth to attain the Forgotten Aeon. While Yuna was within the Chamber, Corlan enjoyed the sensation of feeling weightless. He swam aimlessly around the room, getting the distinct feeling that this could be the last fun thing he did before facing off against Seymour.

The seconds stretched out into minutes, and the minutes stretched into hours, and Yuna had still not come out of the Chamber of the Fayth. Corlan was surprised by just how little there was to do underwater. Just as he began contemplating taking out the Breather and seeing how long he could hold his breath for, Yuna came out of the Chamber. She gave a nod and a thumbs-up, and began to swim towards the exit.

After a quarter of an hour they resurfaced, and swam towards the rope ladder that had been extended from the Airship.

Corlan spent the next few days aboard the Airship. Most of his spare time was taken up with teaching Barthello how to use a sword. It was a bit difficult, because Masamune was a lot bigger and heavier than Callandor and the Soul Reaver, but Barthello's size made up for the weight difference. The trouble came from Barthello's inability to move as quickly and agilely as Corlan could. Throughout the practice sessions, Barthello spoke little, and he faced the practice sessions with a grim determination. He only ever spoke to express trouble with a certain sword-form or grunt his thanks at the end of the lesson. Corlan supposed that Barthello was still shaken by the death of Dona. In fact, Barthello acted very similarly to the way Yuna had over the loss of Tidus. However, Yuna's attitude was one of resignation, but Barthello seemed to have a need to learn the sword, as if he were seeking revenge on Seymour.

Corlan spent the rest of his time in his room. He simply couldn't stand the anxiousness that radiated from the cockpit where everyone else spent their time. It was during one of Barthello's practice sessions that Cid's voice rang out from the Airship intercom.

"Everyone! Come to the cockpit! We're getting a report!"

"Let's go, Barthello."

They ran to the cockpit, and upon entering, heard a distorted voice yelling in Al Bhed.

"…Ur syh, E kuddy nyh pavuna E kad duycdat! Bmayca, kad du dra Calm Lands!" The report cut off there.

"You heard the man! To the Calm Lands!" Cid yelled with surprising excitement.

In a few moments they were over the Calm Lands and getting off the Airship. In the weeks since they had been here, it seemed people had come back to inhabit the town and its surroundings. But they had chosen a bad time to return to their homes. The town was in flames, many of the stalls were in ruin, and bodies littered the ground. And at the heart of the destruction, Seymour stood, laughing maniacally.

"Hahaha! You've finally come. I was beginning to think you would never come! Isn't the destruction of Spira a big enough reason to come and find me?"

"Shut up, Seymour!" Barthello yelled. They were more words than Corlan had heard ever him string together before. "Your time has come!"

With that, Barthello began rushing towards Seymour, sword upraised.

"No, Barthello!" Corlan yelled, at the same time Seymour yelled, "Fool!"

Seymour conjured up a massive ice spear and sent it straight towards Barthello's chest. Barthello would never be able to dodge it. Thinking quickly, Corlan grasped the hilt of Callandor. Power beyond belief coursed through him. He shot a blast of fire, which enveloped the spear, melting it, and also enveloped Seymour himself. When the blast cleared away, Seymour didn't even have a mark on him.

"Hahaha! You see? You cannot hurt me! Hit me if you want, big man."

Barthello resumed his charge; he had stopped after Seymour had conjured the ice-spear. He raised Masamune and brought down a mighty blow on Seymour. Nothing. It didn't even break the skin. The blade sliced cleanly through the cloth of Seymour's clothes, but it simply bounced off his flesh. Seymour just began laughing maniacally again, before blasting Barthello away with a wave of air.

"What should I do now? Maybe I'll…"

He outstretched his hand, and an explosion erupted behind them. They all turned to see… the Airship falling out of the sky.

"No! Dad…" Rikku looked like she was on the verge of collapsing, but she managed to stand strong.

"What next?" Seymour asked, mockingly. "It _would_ be fun to watch you fight your own images."

With that, their vision was filled with… themselves? No, they weren't themselves, they were oddly twisted things that simply _resembled_ them. But the field of clones seemed to stretch out beyond view. This was going to take a while. No, there was a faster way. He grasped Callandor yet again, and power coursed through him. _I can do anything…_

Corlan unleashed his Overdrive, and the clones fell before the shards of crystal. Fire blossomed before him, and lightning stabbed down from the sky. Clones fell in their hundreds, and Corlan looked over the destruction. Seymour stood in the middle of the deluge, apparently unharmed. That wouldn't do. Corlan pumped more power into the onslaught. The clones fell more rapidly, but still Seymour was unharmed.

Corlan looked over to his companions, to see if they were giving him any aid; it seemed like he was doing all the work. He let go of Callandor's hilt in disgust. All of them were huddled beneath a NulShock spell that Yuna had conjured. Lightning had been falling on them just as frequently as it had on the clones.

"I'm sorry, guys. I really am…"

"Stop apologising, start fighting!" Wakka yelled.

He turned to see that the clones were still coming at them, and that they were almost upon them. Drawing the Soul Reaver, Corlan began to cut his way through the clones. It sometimes felt odd splitting a head with a friends face on it, sometimes his own face, but he had no time for these feelings. Every swing of the sword became harder and harder. His weakness was catching up to him. Frankly, he was surprised he had lasted this long; the long swim and constant practices with Barthello hadn't been much help, let alone the massive onslaught he had just unleashed. Just as he felt as if his arms were about to give in, just as he was about to drop his sword and let the clones wash over him, they suddenly vanished.

"That was no fun. You weren't supposed to be winning." Seymour said, mock whining.

"Enough, Seymour!" Yuna yelled. "That's enough! You will do evil no more!"

"Oh my, Yuna. And what is it you will do? As you have seen, nothing can stop me!"

Yuna didn't reply; she simply started dancing.

"Ah, you wish to summon an Aeon, Yuna? We can't have that, can we? No, that could prove to be far too damaging. And one of you has to die first." Seymour punctuated his final word by shooting a ball of pure energy at Yuna.

Time seemed to slow. Corlan didn't know what to do. He didn't think anyone knew what to do. He didn't have the energy to do anything. All he could do was watch as the ball moved closer and closer to Yuna. And when it seemed that the ball was too close, that Yuna was going to die, Barthello stepped into its path. He took the blast straight in the chest. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop him, or to save him.

"Vishnu, come forth!"

The Aeon was in front of Yuna, a massive eight-armed thing, with a surprisingly peaceful face.

"What Aeon is this?" Seymour yelled, at the same time Yuna said, "Give your weapons to him!"

Barthello was the first to react, tossing Masamune up to Vishnu from the floor. "You're the only chance I've got for revenge." He said.

Corlan was the next to toss his weapon to the Aeon. He was glad to get rid of the thing; it made him feel powerful beyond belief, but that kind of power was just too much for him. Kimahri passed up his Spirit Lance, Wakka gave up the World Champion, Lulu let the Onion Knight walk over to Vishnu, and Rikku tossed up her two weapons that made up the God Hand.

In the meantime, Seymour was still yelling, making a vain attempt to vanquish the Aeon. "What is this? It cannot be!"

The weapons began to glow bright white, like he had seen up on the shining path in Macalania. The light all converged on one point, just in front of Vishnu's eight outstretched hands. The light burst forth and enveloped Seymour. Seymour managed to make one final screech before all turned silent.

When Vishnu, and the light vanished, there was not even a scrap of Seymour left. Corlan let out a huge breath of exhaustion.

"It's finally over!"

The others were all clustered around Barthello, but Corlan couldn't bring himself to go over to him. He wasn't sure if he would even be welcome in the circle, the way he had almost killed his friends. Somehow he just knew that Barthello hadn't made it, and he couldn't bring himself to face that either. He also noticed that Yuna wasn't with the others around Barthello, she was staring off into the distance, where the Airship had crashed. Corlan jogged over to her. Her back was turned to him.

"So, do you think this is the end?" He asked.

Yuna took a while to think before answering, "No. I think that as long as Spira has a story to tell, there will be some evil looming in the future, if Spira does not already have some evil to overcome. This is just the end of one chapter, one chapter out of who knows how many. In this chapter we have just ended the evil was Sin, and Seymour, and in the chapter before that the evil was the suspicion and greed that those people harboured for each other in their machina cities. And in this next chapter? Who knows. But I do know that there will be some evil in the future, and right now, all we can do is sit back and hope beyond hope that the next chapter, and the next evil, does not start again in our life times. All we can do is enjoy the peace, and hope."

THE END


End file.
